…As FG vows to punish agents who cancelled return tickets of 230 Eagle’s Fans***

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) may have decided to re-strategise in an aim of protecting its operatives from the rising onslaughts of dare devil rice smugglers,  while boosting the Service capacity to raise revenue.

The Customs national Image maker, and Public Relations Officer, Mr. Joseph Attah, indicated this at the weekend, in Abuja, pointing out that the service had made tremendous efforts towards dealing with rice smugglers in the country.

“We have re-sharpened our strategy on rice anti-smuggling. In recent past, 50 vehicles have been issued to the service by the Federal Government to curtail rice smuggling”, indicated Attah, adding that the newly adopted strategy is aimed at deepening the success story.

“The federal government has also approved the purchase of another set of 68 vehicles to improve deployment and response time.

“We are also aware that there is an ongoing effort to purchase another set of 70 vehicles for Joint Rice Anti-Smuggling Operation,” Attah said, stressing that management was sustaining the ongoing crack down on suspected smugglers across the country because of the improved logistics.

Attah noted that a number of smugglers have been arrested by the anti-smuggling team and they were already being investigated, in a bid to obtain genuine ideas first hand, towards significant reduction of cross border, illicit trading activities.

The image maker who grieved that the smuggling of rice and tracking of smugglers had become one of the most challenging undertakings by the Service, because of the porous nature of the country’s borders; in addition to the un-cooperating dispositions of neighbouring countries as well as attitudes of unpatriotic Nigerians at the border communities had made the fight more herculean.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has vowed to arrest and prosecute any airline travel agents who was involved in the cancellation of the return tickets of 230 Nigerian football fans stranded after the 2018 World Cup Tournament in Russia.

The Nigerian Ambassador to Russia, Prof. Steve Ugba said this in an online video statement made available by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Tope Elias-Fatile in Abuja on Sunday.

Ugba made government’s position known while addressing the stranded Nigerians in Moscow, Russia before their departure to Nigeria.

Over 150 stranded Nigerian football fans besieged the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow on July 12, for assistance at the end of the 2018 World Cup tournament.

The fans had alleged that their return tickets were cancelled abruptly by airline agents, resulting to their being stranded in Russia without any hope of returning to Nigeria.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on July 16, directed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and his Aviation counterpart, Hadi Sirika, to evacuate the Nigerians to Abuja immediately.

Sequel to the directive, a chartered Ethiopian Airline had on July 20 conveyed the 155 stranded Nigerians back to Abuja.

The envoy in the 21 minutes video, expressed gratitude to the president for ensuring that the stranded fans returned safely to the country.

Ugba, who said that the Federal Government did not want the culprits to go free, urged the victims to produce any document they had to enable the government crackdown the agents.

“Give us any document that you have about the people who deceived you, or the people who scammed you, who did you 419 so that we can have them picked up and prosecuted in Nigeria.

“We do not want them to go free. So, give us any document you have that will tell us who these people are.

“We are waiting for them in Nigeria because the kind of behaviour that you exhibited here shows that you have character, shows that you have respect for yourselves, and shows that you have respect for Nigeria,” he said.

“It is not a crime for you to come and at the end of the show, you want to go back. It is not a crime.

“But it is a crime for the person who sold you tickets and then, the second leg of going back you do not have tickets anymore. So, it is not your fault.

“We want to hold those responsible for this terrible behaviour to account for their action so that next time, they will not do the same,” he said.

Ugba who said that the nation was proud of the efforts of the stranded fans to make out time to cheer the Super Eagles in Russia, decried the misdemeanour of the agents, even as he praised the behaviour of the fans and the Super Eagles which he noted had earned Nigeria lots of respect and friends in Russia.