Navy impounds bags of rice

By Philip Nwosu and Chizoba Ikenwa

Officers of the Nigerian Navy have intercepted over 80 bags of rice allegedly being smuggled into the country from Benin Republic through the waterways.

The Navy said its personnel attached to the Forward Operation Base (FOB), Badagry, interceptd a wooden boat being used to ferry the bags of rice while on a patrol at the Iyana-Ipaahi waterways around the Badagry creeks.

Addressing newsmen during a handover ceremony of the seized bags of rice to the Nigerian Customs, the Commanding Officer of the FOB, Badagry, Navy Captain Abdulhakeem Ojebode, said the occupants of the boat, on sighting the Navy, abandoned the cargo and fled.

His words: “This operation goes in line with the roles of the Navy to protect the territorial waters of Nigeria and in supporting the Nigerian Customs in her duty of ensuring that smugglers don’t use our waterways to bring items adjudged to be contraband into Nigeria.”

Ojebode further stressed that he and his officers would not rest but put in more effort in the fight against smuggling in the country, to check the vice.

Commending the efforts of the Navy in checking criminality on the waterways, the Deputy Comptroller Enforcement Western Marine Command of the Nigerian Customs, Mr. Usman Abubakar. hailed the effectiveness of the Navy’s  intelligence methods.

He also appealed for continuous assistance from the Navy and reiterated the need to reduce smuggling to the barest minimum, especially on the with the Western Marine Command of the Custom.

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