…Drivers threaten strike over attacks
The Federal Government has said it had so far intercepted 141 trucks attempting to smuggle grains and other staples to Niger Republic, Chad, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic, in continuation of measures to address the food inflation and cost of living crisis.
The Comptroller-General (CG) of the Nigeria Customs Service, (NCS), Bashir Adeniyi, on Tuesday, said that the Service had within two weeks arrested about 120 trucks smuggling food items from Nigeria while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), stopped 21 food trucks from leaving the country on Tuesday.
As the CG was disclosing the measures being enforced to ensure food security at the House of Representatives in Abuja on Tuesday, truck drivers, who have been targets of attacks by hoodlums, had threatened to declare a strike if the situation persisted.
Several trucks and warehouses, mostly owned by manufacturers and other members of the organised private sector have come under attack from hoodlums as the food inflation and the cost of living crisis in the country spiralled.
Last week, some youths stole food items from trucks stuck in traffic along the Kaduna Road in the Suleja area of Niger State. Also, on Sunday, hoodlums attacked a warehouse belonging to the Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration located in the Dei-Dei area of the capital city, where they looted rice, grains, and other relief items.
The miscreants, in their numbers, also stormed another warehouse in the Idu Industrial Estate, Jabi, Abuja, but were repelled by the troops guarding the facility. Similarly, another set of youths attacked trucks conveying building materials and spaghetti in Ogun and Kaduna states on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Worried by the unsavoury development, the organised private sector warned the attacks could lead to a shutdown of industries across the country.
Briefing the federal lawmakers on the enforcement of the Presidential directive to curtail food smuggling during the sectoral debate series, the Customs CG, Adeniyi, said President Bola Tinubu had given a directive that the arrested trucks be diverted to the local markets in the area where they were arrested to force down the prices of grains and other food items.
He stated that the decision to halt the smuggling of food items was to fight hunger and not encourage those who wanted to enrich themselves at the expense of the people.
He warned against adopting quick-fix solutions to address the food scarcity in the country, adding that the country must put in place long-term measures to address the situation.
Adeniyi explained that the Customs were playing their part in ensuring that the problem of food security was addressed, adding that currently, most agriculture inputs attract zero duty and the value-added tax.
The CG noted that the need to learn from lessons learnt while auctioning seized food items in Lagos was the reason the Service was yet to commence the programme outside Lagos State.
About seven persons died in a stampede at the NCS Old Zonal Headquarters in the Yaba area of Lagos State during the auction of bags of rice confiscated from smugglers by the NCS last month.
The incident forced the authorities to suspend the exercise.
Bringing the lawmakers up to speed on the public auction, Adeniyi said President Tinubu directed the NCS to auction to vulnerable Nigerians the food items intercepted at the Nigerian borders, noting that the implementation of the programme kicked off in Lagos, but was stopped.
Adeniyi further said the seized foodstuffs were to be sold to the local markets nationwide on the President’s orders.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, has said that food scarcity came too early this year. Speaking at the sectoral debate series at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Kyari noted that the naira redesign policy implemented by the government of Muhammadu Buhari denied small-scale farmers access to cash to pay for their harvest towards the end of 2022 as well as pay for cultivation during the commencement of the wet season.
He asserted that the insecurity in the country culminated in low cultivation of land as many farmers were displaced from their communities. To address the challenges being faced by farmers nationwide, Kyari assured Nigerians that President Tinubu had mandated the agric ministry to make grains available both for cultivation and consumption.
He added that the ministry had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a manufacturer to supply 2, 000 tractors annually for the next five years.
However, in another development, truck owners involved in the haulage of food and fuel have declared that they may stop transporting the commodities following the incessant attacks on their vehicles by hoodlums.
The National President of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, (NARTO), Yusuf Othman, in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday, said the truck drivers might withdraw their services if the attacks and looting of food trucks continued.
Othman called on the State governments to address the looting of trucks, adding that the looted food items were not insured by their owners. According to him, the recent attacks had severely impacted their operations negatively.
The NARTO president expressed worries about the inadequate security on the roads, stating that the truck owners would stop operations if the attacks on truck drivers did not abate.
On whether NARTO had commenced any form of discussion with state governments on the issue, Othman replied in the negative, stressing that some of these attackers also targeted fuel tanker drivers.
He, however, stated that the association had met with security agencies over the issue and again pleaded with the public to desist from attacking trucks transporting food and other products.
