Smugglers in Katsina state are now adopting new methods of concealing smuggled items in bags of animal feeds, dates or fertilizer.
The Katsina-Kaduna Area Command of the Nigerian Customs Service is also lamenting the lack of cooperation from many border communities across the state.
TVC News Katsina Correspondent Awwal Ibrahim reports that the porous borders between Katsina state and Niger Republic is now posing a serious challenge to security agencies in Katsina state.
Natural Sounds.
Nevertheless the Nigerian Customs Service has doubled its efforts to reduce smuggling activities to the barest minimum in this axis of the Country.
TVC News Katsina crew met with a Nigerian Customs Border patrol team led by the Comptroller of the Katsina-Kaduna area Command on its way back to the state capital after intercepting some vehicles loaded with bags of parboiled smuggled rice. Kayode Olumisere, Comptroller Katsina-Kaduna Customs Area Command, added that recently more than two hundred bags of rice concealed in bags of Millet or Date were seized.
A driver of one the arrested Vehicles disclosed to TVC News that he is paid N3,000 (three thousand naira) on each delivery of ninety bags of smuggled rice from Mashi town in Katsina to Kano state.
