Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde yesterday at the Seme Border Command of the service, flagged off a fresh campaign against importation of poultry products, with the destruction of 8,000 cartons of smuggled poultry products, valued at about N70Million .
The campaign is tagged: 'Operation Hawk Descend'
Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde yesterday at the Seme Border Command of the service, flagged off a fresh campaign against importation of poultry products, with the destruction of 8,000 cartons of smuggled poultry products, valued at about N70Million .
The campaign is tagged: 'Operation Hawk Descend'
Speaking at a town hall meeting with key stakeholders at theb, the Customs boss said that the objective of the "Operation Hawk Descend" which is expected to be for an initial period of three months is to achieve national food security and protection of Nigerian economy against smuggling of poultry products.
Dikko, who was represented by Deputy Comptroller General in charge of enforcement, investigation and inspection; Musa Tahir warned that henceforth, Customs officers will intercept poultry products, seize and destroy them.
Dikko said: "The Hawk Descend is a special operation to fire shot in our war against smuggling of frozen chickens, turkeys and other poultry products into the country.
"The operation will be conducted in the South-Western border axis covering our command and patrols in Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States and it would be for three months.
"During this period, our operatives will intercept smuggled products which will be destroyed in line with the provision of extant laws and regulations. There will be no hiding place for smuggled chickens in our land because our hawks will descend and mop them out of circulation.
"There are millions of patriotic Nigerians who have invested their hard earned resources in the local poultry sector so the unfair competition from smuggled chickens threatens their investment and capacity.
“So any form of smuggling would not be tolerated”.
He also vowed that Customs officers will raid cold rooms and major distribution points where poultry products are being sold.
He added that: "Government in its wisdom has banned the importation of frozen chicken and turkey into Nigeria. However it is a known fact that smugglers all over the world thrive on products whose trade is controlled, restricted or out rightly banned"
"Though we have succeeded in bringing smuggling to a near standstill in the past, we are however witnessing a recent upsurge"
"With the launch today, we are renewing our determination to strike a final blow to poultry products smugglers, as we roll out our guns smoking; we are strengthened by the outcome of recent medical research which confirmed our fears about the health hazards of consuming smuggled products".
Dikko admitted that the destruction of seized poultry product is stretching the logistics of of the Customs to its limits, even as he said that the manner of destruction equally raising serious environmental questions.
He assured that in the course of the "Operation Hawk Descend" customs will collaborate with Ministry of Environment at Federal and State levels, NGOs, environmental activists and other interested stakeholders to pursue better ways of disposal in a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable manner.
Also speaking at the town hall meeting, Director General of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN); Dr. Ayoola Oduntan warned that Nigerians consuming poultry products are at risk of unknown deceases because most of the poultry products imported into Nigeria are being preserved with poisonous chemicals.
Dr Oduntan wh o was represented by the Director General of the association, Mr Onallo Akpa, said that over 500 metric tonnes of poultry products were being imported from European countries alone into the country despite the efforts of Nigeria poultry farmers.
"Formalin which is the chemical used to embalm corpses is the same that is used to preserve the frozen products before importation to the country and it is very dangerous to our health.
"Other than ruining the Nigerian economy, the destruction of the local poultry industry and the erosion of family livelihoods, Nigerians are worse off by the continued patronage of these unwholesome smuggled poultry products and it can bring a collapse to the economy.
"We must not allow smuggling to destroy our economy; so we must work together to save our economy,’ Oduntan said.
He argued that the continuous importation of poultry products will harm the economy of Nigeria, stating that the poultry industry in Nigeria has been able to contribute 85 percent of the agricultural domestic product in Nigerian economy with 14 million Nigerians involved in terms of employment generation.
"Statistics in the last seven years have indicated that the Republic of Benin with population of less than 25million people have had the highest number of poultry products imported into their country than any other country in the sub-region. This is not because they want to consume them in Benin Republic, but because they want to smuggle it into Nigeria", he disclosed.
Reeling out more statistics, he added that: "Eighty percent of the products find themselves into Nigeria poultry market. In 2008 alone the Republic of Benin imported 82,338 metric tonnes of chicken into their country, in 2009, they had 84, 328 metric tonnes with eighty percent smuggled into Nigeria"
"In 2010, it was 138,614, in 2011 it was 133,764, in 2012 it was 136,889 tonnes, in 2013 it was 142, 478 tonnes, in 2014 it was 162, 791 tonnes. On yearly basis the import has continued to double".
He also added that these imports are from European countries alone; this is different from Thailand, USA and Brazil.
“By the time you aggregate the import into the Republic of Benin on an annual basis, it is between 1.2million tonnes and 1.5million tonnes. If this is translated into the real cost of poultry production, it translates into a whooping 2.5billion dollars"
"This cannot continue in an economy that wants to survive other than oil, the reality is on us ans we are all aware of it."
The Director General of National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC); Dr. Paul Orhi who was represented by Director of Port Inspections; Mrs Maureen Ebigbeyi assured that the agency has put a lot of measures in place to ensure that Nigerians only consume quality foods.
The frozen products are supposed to be stored at temperatures below five degree centigrade and that once it is outside these; it becomes contaminated with different kinds of bacterial that leads to food poisoning.
Discussion about this post