Customs’ Invasion Of Ibadan Rice Market An Ethnic Agenda-Senator Balogun
Senator Kola Balogun has alleged that the invasion of the Oja Oba, Ibadan, Oyo State Rice Market by the officers and men of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) is an ethnic agenda against the Yoruba people.
The senator, who represents Oyo South Senatorial District in the National Assembly, made the declaration in his reaction to the invasion of the rice market by the NCS, in the early hours Saturday, declaring that it was an act of ethnic intolerance.
It was said that the Customs officers, allegedly aided by some officers and men of the Nigerian Army, went to the market, forcefully opened the shops and carted away eight truckloads of rice.
Senator Kola Balogun, in a short WhatsApp message sent to Newscoven.ng on Sunday night, described the action of the NCS as an act of disrespect to an important arm of the government, the legislature, adding that it smacked of ethnic intolerance.
He also said the latest raid on the Ibadan rice market was no longer part of the normal official duty or responsibility of the Nigerian Customs Service.
“They are being disrespectful to an important arm of government. The audacity by which they came back, accompanied by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, smacks of ethnic intolerance.
“It is no longer a normal Customs Service duty. They may be playing some script, anti-Yoruba agenda. They must be reminded that no empire lasts forever and neither the emperor.
“And those who make peaceful co-existence impossible are simply making violent disintegration inevitable,” Senator Balogun added in the short WhatsApp message.
The latest invasion of rice shops in Ibadan is the second in one month, the first one being the raid of the Bodija Rice Market, between the night of March 31 and April 1, 2021 and in which several bags of rice and other food items, said to worth more than N85 million, were carted away.
The second invasion also came, even as the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions is still investigating the first night invasion of rice traders’ shops between March 31 and April 1.
The Ibadan Foodstuff Sellers Association had written a petition to the Senate President, through Senator Kola Balogun, to investigate the first invasion and which led to the sealing off of the shops in the Bodija Rice Market.
The Public Relations Officer of Oyo/Osun Customs Command, Kayode Wey, confirmed the second invasion, but declared that the operation was carried out by Federal Operation Unit (FOU), Zone A.
“It is the FOU. They are not our people. It was the FOU that went to Bodija Market the last time. It is the same FOU, we do not know anything about it. We do not have any information on it. I am hearing it the same way you are hearing it,” he reportedly said.
However, the Public Relations Officer of NCS, FOU Zone A, Mr. Theophilus Duniya, who also confirmed the development, was said to have be more emphatic, declaring that the NCS is empowered to carry out such an operation.
“Yes, until we examine them. You are aware that the Federal Government imposed a ban on importation of foreign rice to encourage local production in the country.
“As it stands, foreign rice is a contraband and the law empowers us, the Act that established the Service empowers officers to carry out such operations; to break into any shop or warehouse upon reasonable suspicion that prohibited goods are stored, and evacuate them,” he was quoted to have said.
Recalled that the first midnight forceful invasion caused uproar and protest by the affected rice traders in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The traders were prevented from carrying out their legitimate trading activities in the market as their shops and five others were put under special white padlock, allegedly put on the doors by the Customs officers.
