The Nigeria Customs Service says it has begun distributing seized food items to hungry citizens to help mitigate the current hardships. However, the agency said persons with a verifiable National Identification Number (NIN).

Speaking at the flag-off of the exercise in Lagos on Thursday, the comptroller-general of customs, Wale Adeniyi, said the federal government ordered the distribution of the seized food items.

Mr Adeniyi said customs was working with other agencies to distribute the seized foods directly to needy Nigerians. Mr Adeniyi said Nigerians would require a verifiable NIN to benefit.

“Our target includes artisans, teachers, religious organisations and other Nigerians within the area of customs operations, including the border areas.

“The intention of this distribution is to reach out directly to members of organisations that have structures to ensure the maximum impact of the exercise.

“The effort of the distribution is to ensure robust security protocol throughout the process as officers will closely monitor the entire supply chain to prevent any misuse or possible diversion of food items,” said Mr Adeniyi.

He said that the gesture was part of the federal government’s efforts to reduce food prices in the country.

The customs boss added, “We collaborate with other sister agencies of the government, while customs is the lead agency because the food items are with us.

“Among us here are the police and DSS, and tomorrow, we are going to have a full department of all the sister organisations for proper monitoring.”

Mr Adeniyi said the rice distributed was certified for consumption by the National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) before being re-bagged to 25kg to reach as many Nigerians as possible.

The customs boss said 10 points had been created for the processing, and interested Nigerians should come with their NIN to restrict people from benefiting twice.

He added that customs would work with the police to ensure the food items were not resold.

Mr Adeniyi, however, urged Nigerians to report any incident of misuse or unauthorised resale of the food items. He said customs would not hesitate to arrest and prosecute anyone possessing food items in their stores.

Mr Adeniyi said customs officers had intercepted over 20,000 bags of 50kg of parboiled rice, beans, maise, millet, and soya beans.

The customs boss added that the area commands detained over 50 trucks containing the food items. 

He said other items seized included 2,500 cartons of 963 bags of assorted dried fish, dry pepper, seasoning, salt, cooking oil, macaroni, sugar and garri.

(NAN)