Navy arrests 4 suspects, seizes 220 bags of rice
The Nigerian Navy in Akwa Ibom State has arrested four suspects in connection with the smuggling of 220 bags of 50kg rice.
The four male suspects and the wooden boat carrying the smuggled rice were intercepted during a routine patrol by Navy gunboats attached to the Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Ibaka, Mbo Local Government Area around the Effiat waterways.
The Commanding Officer, FOB, Captain Peter Yilme said yesterday in Ibaka during the hand-over of the suspects and items to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), that the Navy is committed to making sure perpetrators of illegal trade were crippled.
He said since the smugglers have failed to relent from their ways, the Navy will give them no breathing space until the illegal trade is completely eradicated.
Yilme, who was represented by the Base Operations Officer, Lieutenant Commander Kabiru Yusuf, said the action was in line with the directives of the Chief of Naval Staff and in compliance with the reference of the FOB.
While receiving the four suspects and 220 bags of rice from the Nigerian Navy, Deputy Superintendent of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Alabi, Adedokun, commended the Navy for the cooperation between them and for the sustained arrests.
One of the suspects, 29-year-old Godwin Nseyoh from Mbo LGA, said he did not know that smuggling rice was wrong.
"I am a fisherman in Effiat community, I didn't know that bringing in rice from Cameroon was wrong," he said.