Operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have impounded a van with police number plates and siren used to smuggle imported rice in Ogun State.
According to the Controller of the Ogun 1 Area Command, Bamidele Makinde who disclosed this to newsmen on Tuesday, the Hillux van, with police number plate, PF 10889 SPY, was arrested with 27 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice.
Makinde stated that on sighting the Customs officials, the driver of the vehicle abandoned the car and the bags of rice and fled.
The Controller added investigations were still ongoing to determine if the van belongs to the police or was only fitted with the number plate and siren.
He noted that the command is in communication with the NCS headquarters in Abuja on the necessary steps to be taken.
“As it is, it will be communicated to Abuja. The NCS headquarters has the final say on what happens to it. If it is found to be a police vehicle, it is only Abuja that can release it to the police authority,” Makinde told newsmen.
When contacted on the matter, the spokesman of the Ogun State Police Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said he was not aware of the seizure.
“I am not aware, but I will find out,” Oyeyemi said.
The Customs Controller added that other seizures made by the Command in the period under review include 5,420 bags of rice between February 9 and March 21.
Other seizures include cannabis, vegetable oils, second-hand clothes, frozen poultry products, and many others with total duty paid value of N143,905,508.
He said the command seized “133 sacks and 181 wraps (book size) of cannabis sativa; 18 units of vehicles; 13 kegs of vegetable oil; 8 bales of 19 small ‘Ghana-must-go bags’ and two sacks of second-hand cloths.”
Others are, “25 sacks and 4 bags of used shoes; 880 cartons of frozen poultry products and 26,725 litres of PMS.”
This article was originally published on Nigeria News