Court stops customs from seizing imported rice in open market

Court stops customs from seizing imported rice in open market

A court of appeal in Kaduna has stopped the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) from impounding foreign rice in the open market or on the highways.

Operatives of NCS are in the habit of staying on the road arresting people suspected to have smuggled imported rice. They also storm rice shops and markets to impound foreign rice.

In a judgment delivered on December 6, a three-member panel of justices led by Ntong Ntong held that existing laws restrict the enforcement by the customs to land borders only.

The judgment was delivered in an appeal filed by the NCS against a decision of the federal high court that acquitted one Suleiman Mohammed, a businessman, of charges related to the importation of rice.

Customs had arrested Mohammed after seizing a truck carrying 613 bags of foreign rice and 80 bags of millet belonging to the businessman on June 14, 2019, along the Kaduna-Zaria expressway.

Mohammed was charged and arraigned on a two-count charge.

However, in a judgment delivered on November 10, 2021, Z. B. Abubakar, trial judge, acquitted the defendants of the charges.

Abubakar held that the plaintiffs (customs) failed to give enough evidence to prove that the defendant imported the goods.