Nigeria’s investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, has exposed another round of rice smuggling in 1500 cars by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) officers in collusion with notorious smugglers.
Soyombo, who made the revelation on his verified social media account on Thursday, said that the rice were smuggled from Idi-Iroko in Ipokia local government area of Ogun State into Sango and Owode areas of the state on Tuesday and Thursday nights.
He said, “At exactly 10:01 pm on Tuesday, I tweeted that 1500 cars containing rice were being moved from Idi-Iroko into Sango and Owode by Adeyemi Habeeb Abdulganiy, the smuggler better known as ‘Abuga’, aided by nobody else other than your men. That was a minimum of 4,500,000kg of rice into the country through the backdoor.
“Within an hour of that tweet, your men in Idi-Iroko received a phone call from Abuja to suspend the thievery.
“Hundreds of rice cars had already crossed the border by then, the rest were forced to make an abrupt about-face.
“I am aware that Najeem Akorede, your man popularly called ‘Najeem Custom’, finally passed the remaining thousand rice cars last night, working in cahoots with ‘Abuga’.”
On Tuesday, Soyombo revealed in a post that following his X post on then ongoing smuggling of at least 1500 cars containing rice into Sango and Owode, the operation was now suspended.
He wrote, “I can confirm that following my last tweet about the ongoing smuggling of at least 1500 cars containing rice into Sango and Owode, the operation has now been suspended.
“And it took only one phone call from Abuja to Customs in the said area. Just one phone call.
“This is another proof that once political/leadership willpower is intact, many of our problems are solvable. And when problems seem intractable, it’s because the ruling class is invested!”
Soyombo said that in March, when he addressed how Customs officers were the biggest hoteliers in border areas, “I spotlighted Rao International Hotel and Suites, located along the Idi-Iroko smuggling route, specifically Km 15 Sango-Idi-Iroko Road, owned by ‘Najeem Custom’, equating it to policemen establishing hotels along notorious armed robbery routes.
“This is what has become of the Customs service, a government instrument for enriching a corrupt minority at the expense of public good.
“Sooner or later, all this will have to stop. The only way forward is for the borders to be opened for legitimate rice importation.”