In continuation of measures to address the food inflation and cost of living crisis, the Federal Government Tuesday 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.
The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adeniyi, said that the service had within two weeks arrested about 120 trucks smuggling food items from Nigeria while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission 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.
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.
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