Maritime stakeholders fault Customs for distributing poisonous rice as #COVID-19 palliatives  

Speaking on the now controversial federal palliative, Amiwero stressed that the time lag between seizure and distribution, and the poor storage condition were enough to make the rice unfit for consumption.”Sometimes ago, the CG of Customs (Col. Hameed Ali (rtd)) said the rice was poisonous,” he noted.

“We expect him to have said this rice is not fit for human consumption, especially looking at the time they closed the (land) borders and the time most of the bags of rice were seized. You will find out that it is a long time.

“Much of the rice was not kept in areas with ventilation, so you expect some of it to get spoilt and expired, looking at the time it was smuggled in and seized.”

Therefore, “before the rice is distributed, Customs supposed to have investigated whether it is good for human consumption, especially when the CG has stated that the rice is poisonous.

“The rice is not supposed to be distributed after the statement that it is poisonous. Customs should have told the Federal Government that the rice is poisonous, while the other things that are not perishable could have been given as Covid-19 palliatives.

“Rice is perishable because it depends on the storage. The way it is stored in Lagos might not be the way it is stored in Ibadan.

“They might store it in  a place with insects, which will infect it. Many things are responsible for that, which are very serious issues.”

Refering to the call by the League of Maritime Editors for Ali’s removal over the issue, Amiwero said that “for the issue to have degenerated to that context, what I can say is that the rice shouldn’t have been distributed since it has been tagged poisonous rice, because it is not fit for human consumption.”Similarly, President of the National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC), Prince Bakare Adeyinka, noted that some of the seized rice have stayed too long in the warehouse.

According to him, “some of the rice must have been seized five to six  years ago. The proper thing would have been to ask NAFDAC to ascertain the status of the rice to know how edible they are before distributing them.”

He explained further: “They might not know that the rice is bad or not good for consumption. We should also be mindful that this is part of the rice that has been sent to some IDPs since months ago.”

Attributing the lapses to leadership problem in the NCS, Adeyinka noted that “people who are asking for the CG’s sack believe that if the man were a professional and Customs-oriented, he would have known better what is happening.”

Other than that, “people around him are not advising him well on what needs to be done, at what time this rice should go out or be destroyed.

“Those asking for his sack have their reasons, in as much as we are asking for a professional customs officer to be the head of the service.”

On his part, the National President of the Association of Nigeria Licenced Customs Agents (ANLCA), Tony Iju Nwabunike, said the Oyo State Government should not be faulted for rejecting the rice.

“I don’t think we should blame the (Oyo) state government because they don’t want to give out something that will be worse than coronavirus,” he said.

“However, I think the Federal Government must have done it (donation) out of their own volition, so it is a two way thing.

“I don’t think the rice should be given out to anybody, it should be seized and destroyed the same way they seized and destroyed poultry products.”

Nwabunike condemned the total ban on rice import without sufficient local production, stating: “ab initio, I am one of those that never supported that rice should be banned entirely because we don’t have enough capacity to grow rice for now.

“We should have got five to six years plan for exiting from importing to production of rice.”