The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday flagged off the distribution of seized smuggled rice, vegetable oil to orphanage homes in Lagos.
Joseph Attah, national public relation officer of the service, who this disclosed this in a chat with newsmen in Lagos on Tuesday, said that since peace has returned to the North-East, the need for seized rice at the camp of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), has reduced, hence the need to give orphanage homes across the country.
“We announced that the comptroller general of customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) has secured the presidential nod to extend the distribution of relief materials such as rice, vegetable oil, soap and spaghetti, used clothing and all that, to orphanage homes across the country.
“Before now, the national Logistics Committee was distributing these items to victims of insurgency in the North East. Then, it was restricted to the North East but with the relative peace in the region and increasing numbers of IDPs returning to their ancestral homes, there is need to extend the distribution of this to victims of herdsmen crisis, communal and more importantly orphans across the country,” he said.
Attah, who further disclosed that a subcommittee headed by Yakubu Salihu, a Customs comptroller, had arrived in Lagos to begin distribution of 68,226 bags of rice to 98 orphanage homes.
Attah said that 34,332 kegs of 25 litres of vegetable oil; 68,226 bags of rice; second hand clothing; used foot wears and spaghetti would be distributed among 98 orphanage homes in Lagos.
“We have foot wears, used clothing and other perishable seized items which we will try as much as possible to ensure that they get to the intended recipients. We have identified 98 orphanage homes and we are still identifying more. Five of them have already arrived and these are the early callers.”
Attah said that the relief items will be loaded and escorted to these homes and the recipient will sign a landing certificate indicating that the number taken from the warehouse actually got to the intended orphanage.
“The number of bags of rice to be given will depend on the number of children in the home because the benchmark we are using is that we give five bags a child and if we have 20 children which are authenticated. It will be multiplied by five. So, some people will receive 100, 500 and we have even identified those who will receive 1000 bags,” he added.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
