Farmers accuse Customs of selling N4m seized farm produce at N200 per basket

— As LG chairman frowns at security agents’ blackmail of Federal Government good intention

Damilola Adoga

The Nigeria Customs Service in Ogun State has been accused of selling seized farm produce worth 4 Million at N200 per basket to members of the public.

The farmers, under the aegis of Yewa-Awori Farm Produce Traders and Farmers Association, stormed the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat in Abeokuta to stage protest, carrying placards with various inscriptions to protest the seizure.

In an interview with newsmen, the Chairman of the association, Timothy Eweoba, said operatives of the NCS had on Sunday night, impounded trucks conveying the produce at Ijoun in Yewa North Local Government Area of the state.

According to him, it’s shocking that Customs could seize their produce grown in the country and not contraband. Our truck contained 250 baskets at N2, 000 per basket; six trucks of tomato and pepper were impounded.

“We want government to intervene and come to our aid. We are farmers and not smugglers. This is not rice and we took loan from banks to plant all these products,”

he said.

The National PRO of the NCS, John Attah, who confirmed the seizure to newsmen however, said the seizure took place at the border as contraband, during a Joint Border Security Exercise and not as a locally-grown product as claimed by the traders.

Attah, who also doubles as the spokesman of the Joint Border Security Exercise, said the traders needed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the seized products were not smuggled into the country.

“The tomatoes were impounded at the border line. And if it’s true as they claimed that it was locally-produced, they should go there and prove it.
“It’s imperative on them to prove that the goods are local goods. It’s not rocket science. This is a joint exercise and it goes beyond the customs. What we are doing is in the interest of national security,”

he said.

Meanwhile, the Executive Chairman of Imeko-Afon Local Government Area in Ogun State, Hon. Tosin Adeluyi has further accused security agents of bastardising the good intentions of the Federal Government in sanitizing movements across the Nigerian border.

Adeluyi who lauded the closure of the land border with the primary aim of increasing border security however, lamented the insensitivity of security agents at the border communities to the plight of farmers and traders.

According to him,

“the ways and manners the security operatives carry out this exercise have denied a lot of farmers who were transporting their goods from their farms in Nigeria to other parts of the country, particularly within Ogun State, access to markets.”

The local government boss expressed worries that if the farmers, who are transporting their farm produce such as: tomatoes, garri, palm oil and others, are not allowed to move their farm produce from their farms to the markets which are all within Nigeria, the actions of the security agents would economically strangulate the farmers and bastardize the federal government’s efforts on agriculture.

Adeluyi further argued that farmers and traders are being impoverished by the day as their primary sources of livelihood are being jeopardized.

The implication he pointed out would also be that Nigerians should warm up for increase in prices of tomatoes, yams, garri and other food items because the border communities in Imeko-Afon Local Government like Ilara, Idofa, Iwoye and Imeko contribute a lot to the food items being consumed in some states in Nigeria, particularly in Ogun and Lagos States.

He wished that the border closure would be better coordinated and the Nigerian farmers allowed free access to Nigerian markets with their farm produce, in order to avoid further loss of income to the people of Imeko-Afon Local Government area of Ogun State.