Following the directive of President Bola Tinubu, the Katsina State command of the Nigerian Customs Service, NSC, on Wednesday handed over six seized trucks containing grains to the owners.
The presidential directive was aimed at ensuring food security and alleviating the hardship faced by most citizens in the country.
The Katsina State Customs Area Comptroller, Muhammad Umar, while releasing the trucks, recalled that the Controller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, had passed across the presidential directive which mandated the return of the detained food items to the owners on the condition that they would be sold within the Nigerian market.
According to Umar, the released trucks will be closely monitored by the Katsina Customs Area Command in collaboration with the Customs Intelligence Unit, Federal Operation Unit and Joint Border Patrol Team, to ensure that they are not smuggled out of the country again.
Umar pleaded with the general public to provide information that would assist in curtailing the smuggling of foodstuff out of the country.
The chairman of the State Task Force Committee on Food Security and Promotion, Jabiru Abdullahi Tsauri, warned smugglers and owners of the released trucks to adhere strictly to the presidential directive by selling the assorted grains to Nigerians particularly citizens of Katsina State.
Tsauri said, “We already instructed the Local Government chairman to form a committee to monitor strictly, in conjunction with the task force, the sales of these grains.”
Hardship: Customs releases 6 confiscated trucks of grains to owners
