Drones Deployed To Inspect Rice Smuggling

According to the report, the Nigerian Air Force and The Nigeria Customs Service are working to deploy drones for border surveillance on rice smuggling.

Aminu Dangalidima, the Deputy Comptroller-General, Enforcement, Investigation and Inspection, NCS, disclosed this during the issuance of 30 additional Toyota Hilux patrol vehicles to the Strike Force team of the service.

Dangalidima said with the release of the totalled 50 vehicles for the month, the service was in a better position to check the activities of rice smugglers.

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He stated, “The issuance of the vehicles is part of the Federal Government’s support to curtail smuggling of prohibited items, especially rice. With this robust support coming from the Federal Government, the Nigeria Customs Service is in a better position to deal ruthlessly with the enemies of Nigeria’s security and economic prosperity.”
“With these vehicles, our response time at the scene of any smuggling activity will be swift and decisive.”

He also warned officers of the service who would use the vehicles not to compromise their professional integrity in the discharge of their duties.

This, according to him, will assist in reducing the activities of smugglers at the borders.
He said, “We are using technology to check to smuggle and this is part of it. We are even thinking higher than this. We are thinking of having drones and we are also thinking of trying to bring in the Air Force.”

“We are also trying to have the unmanned aerial vehicles and others that can assist us, and all these are in progress.”

Dangaladima added that once the service was able to reduce the activities of smugglers, it would result into improved revenue for the government.“We will be able to boost revenue generation once we are able to block leakages,” he noted

The Federal Government had last week stated that it would shut Nigeria’s land border with a neighbouring country in a few days’ time in order to halt the smuggling of rice into the nation.

Although it did not disclose the identity of the neighbouring country, the government stated that the nation in question had been extensively used for the illegal movement of foreign rice into Nigeria, a development that had impacted on the economy adversely.

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The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who made the announcement at a leadership event for youths under the auspices of the Guardians of the Nation International in Abuja, stated that the decision to close the land border had become necessary in order to encourage local production of rice and sustain the nation’s economy.

He had said, “Our other problem is smuggling. As we speak, a neighbor of ours is importing more rice than China is importing.”

“They do not eat parboiled rice (in that country); they eat white rice; and they use their ports to try and damage our economy. I am telling you now because in a few days, you will hear that the border has been shut; we are going to shut it to protect you, us and protect our economy.”