(Business in Cameroon) - On November 13, 2018, in Taraba, a locality in Adamawa state, Nigeria, customs intercepted a truck conveying 299 bags of smuggled rice. The vehicle was immediately abandoned by its occupants when intercepted, we learnt.

According to the Nigerian newspaper The Punch, the cargo, worth more than 5 million naira (just over CFA8 million), came from Cameroon and was to be sold on the Nigerian territory.

“The Customs intercepted a trailer loaded with 299 bags of foreign rice along the Pella-Maiha Road. The suspects […] exploited the rough terrain between Nigeria and Cameroon to smuggle the product into Nigeria on motorcycles,” Kamardeen Olumoh, controller of the Taraba customs area, told The Punch.

“Most of the time, the owners of the trailers will not know what the drivers are doing. They may just give the drivers the trailers for transportation of goods, but we want them to know that the position of the law is that the Customs will seize the contraband goods and the means of conveyance,” he added.

As a reminder, Cameroon and Nigeria share a long porous border of 1500 km, around which intense smuggling activity has developed over the years. Rice is one of the most smuggled goods.

BRM