The Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) has approved the release of 247 truckloads of relief items with a market value of N3.250 billion and a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N2billion from its warehouses. A statement by Customs’ Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller Joseph Attah, said the approval was in compliance with the Presidential directive to provide relief items from seizures by Customs operatives.

It said the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19) necessitated various and continuous actions by Government at different levels to prevent and/or stop the spread of the virus in Nigeria. The statement also said in reaction to pains associated with the effects of the lockdown in some parts of the country, some Nigerians on social media called on the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to share seized rice and other edible items to the public.

The relief items include 158 trailer load of rice estimated at 46,000 metric tonnes, 30 trucks of vegetable oil with 36,495 units of 25 litre kegs, and 3,428 kegs of palm oil. Others are 54 trucks containing 136,705 cartons of tomatoes paste, 2,951 cartons of spaghetti and 1,253 packets of noodles, 828 bales of wrappers (Ankara) and 2,300 rolls of lace fabric.

The entire load of relief materials will be conveyed in 247 trucks, the analysis shows as Customs noted that only edible items certified fit for human consumption by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) will be released to the public . Customs clarified that the provision of section 167(2) of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) CAP C45 LFN 2004 says seized items upon condemnation and forfeiture to the Federal Government by a competent court of jurisdiction are kept in government warehouses pending government directive on its disposal.

“Accordingly, in compliance with the Presidential directive, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col, Hameed Ali (Rtd) has already approved the release of relief items to boost the Federal Government continuous efforts to alleviate sufferings associated with the painful but necessary ongoing lockdown in some parts of the country,” it noted. As at the time of filing this report, locations and places where the items will be distributed are yet to be disclosed by the Customs.

Daily Trust reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Monday ordered the distribution of 150 trucks of rice seized by Customs to the 36 states of the Federation. The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists at a news conference in Abuja on Monday. The news conference was on the fiscal stimulus measures in response to COVID-19 pandemic and oil prices fiscal shock.

Ahmed said the seized trucks of rice had been handed over to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management for onward distributions to Nigerians. She added that in addition to this, the president had also approved distribution of grains from strategic grain reserves across the country.

Kylekent59:
Account dey read minus for some people.

I saw big man in my area begging a lady who sells herbal stuffs for money.

The gir declined, and says she gat no money. After the man had walked about 7 meters away from her, she called the man back and handed him #500.

Hunger is everywhere.

chatinent:
"This Coronavirus pandemic is a miasma of a deplorable apotheosis, a UFO of a hemorrhaging plutocracy, with Han descent or Chinese orifice, cascadingly oozing into a malodorous excrescences of mobocracy. How can the universe run beserk in a topsy turvy fashion that the utopian projections of public splendour and humongous military accoutrements and armaments of the so called developed nations have fizzled out as an expired bazooka? Who bails the cat? How are the mighty fallen and what deities or terra ferma chichidos can be responsible for this anathema? With all this termagant ossifying proclivities of abracadabra in the toga of unpatented chemical concoctions being brandished as cures and panacea, the terra ferma is headed for avoidable oblivion. How come even our academically knowledgia centura is enveloped in a paraphlegic crinkum crankum? It is not yet uhuru. To your tents Oh Isreal...Que Sera Sera."

chatinent:
"This Coronavirus pandemic is a miasma of a deplorable apotheosis, a UFO of a hemorrhaging plutocracy, with Han descent or Chinese orifice, cascadingly oozing into a malodorous excrescences of mobocracy. How can the universe run beserk in a topsy turvy fashion that the utopian projections of public splendour and humongous military accoutrements and armaments of the so called developed nations have fizzled out as an expired bazooka? Who bails the cat? How are the mighty fallen and what deities or terra ferma chichidos can be responsible for this anathema? With all this termagant ossifying proclivities of abracadabra in the toga of unpatented chemical concoctions being brandished as cures and panacea, the terra ferma is headed for avoidable oblivion. How come even our academically knowledgia centura is enveloped in a paraphlegic crinkum crankum? It is not yet uhuru. To your tents Oh Isreal...Que Sera Sera."

senatordave1:
Kudos to buhari.up buhari