Federal Operations Unit (FoU), Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ikeja, Lagos, has intercepted over 1,000 bags of foreign parboiled rice smuggled into the country through Benin Republic.
Speaking during a press briefing in Lagos on Thursday, May 5, the acting Comptroller, FOU, Zone A, Hussein Ejibunu, said the rice came into Cotonou from India.
According to him, the foreign rice were tested by National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and confirmed to be poisonous and unsafe for consumption.
He said;
After seizing the smuggled rice, we called NAFDAC to conduct laboratory analysis and it was gathered that the rice named SIMBA which consist of Led substances that is poisonous to the body was produced in India.
Ejibunu further warned Nigerians to desist from buying any imported rice, saying “no smuggled items will escape through the borders in the southwest under my watch”.
