Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has directed the Nigerian Customs Service to return all seized rice and other grains to their owners for onward retailing in the markets across the country.
The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi disclosed this on Saturday while holding a stakeholder meeting at Kwangwalam, a border town in the Maiadua Local Government Area of Katsina State.
According to him, the president gave the directive in his generous gesture of ensuring that people of the country have enough food to buy at cheaper prices from the markets.
He clarified that the confiscated food items would only be returned to their owners on the condition that they are sold in Nigerian markets.
“The whole idea is to promote food security and ensure that Nigerians will not be living with hunger and Mr President considers this as one of the strategies that can help address the problem of food security.
“We have over 120 trucks of food items for export seized, which means a lot of food items were taken out of our markets, leading to the unavailability that created some pressure on the prices of these food items. So, we hope that by the time we restock our markets, it will have some positive effects on the prices,” he said.
Meanwhile, Adeniyi reacting to agitation for the reopening of the borders, Adeniyi said President Bola Tinubu is the only person with the prerogative to reopen borders in the country.
“We are conscious of the concerns of the border communities, particularly about the number of checkpoints and the closure of land borders
“I assure you that our operations are always guided by law and we only operate on delegated powers.
“We have communicated the concerns and complaints by residents of the border communities to the President.
“Because he has listening ears, and directed that we should release confiscated food items, on the condition that it only be sold in Nigerian markets,” he said.
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