Group Tasks Customs On Distribution Of Relief Materials To Prison Inmates

By Roland Ekama

Newly formed maritime group under the aegis of All Port Unified Freight Forwarders Practitioners has called on the Nigeria Customs Service to channel some of the seized items to prison inmates across the six geo political zones of the country.

 The group commended the service for the initiative of distributing confiscated cargoes from smugglers and unscrupulous shippers to orphanages and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps but suggested that millions of persons in prison custody need to benefit from the exercise.

 The Nigeria Customs Service in the last one month has positively impacted to the lives of people in IDP and orphanages across the country.

 In line with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS), the service has distributed relief materials to 134 less privileged homes in the south west of the country as well as distributing relief materials to IDP across the nation.

 The service  Sub Committee on Relief Items to Orphanages has also disclosed that  a cumulative number of 7,350 orphans in the South West region comprising; Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states benefited from the exercise.

 The service has also moved the exercise to  zone B ,comprising Kaduna,Kano,Katsina Zamfara,Sokoto,Kebbi states etc,distributing relief materials to the needy.

 According to  a statement ,released by the service recently, great impact has been made in the lives of orphans in the last three weeks , in line with the federal government intention to alleviate the suffering of the less privilege citizens.

 President of All Port Unified Association,Prince Mike Okorie ,while reacting to the poor  health conditions of prisoners  at Kirikiri Prisons as reported by Dailyfocus News Online last week,noted that the service under Col.Hameed can impact positively in the lives of inmates if the items can be distributed to them.

 According to him,medical items that are impounded by officers and men can be channeled to the inmates through NAFDAC approval.

 He added that” Apart from rice vegetable oil,tomato pastes ,other Items like frozen turkey and chicken that are mostly destroyed by the service can play a vital role in the lives of inmates because Nigerians still patronise such edibles in the local market and they are still living without any form of illness.

 “These are some of the proactive measures that we should embrace as stakeholders in the system.

 The President further lamented  over 10,000 bags of expired  rice under the custody of Western Marine Command of the service would have ameliorate the suffering of prisoners, saying “Such items can provide succour to all the inmates in prisons across the six geo political zones for a period.

 Similarly, the association stated that it has written to the Federal Operations Unit Zone A ,for a meeting in furtherance to share ideas and information on how to address key issues affecting trade facilitations and clearance of goods from the ports.

 The statement signed by the President added that ” We also want to pay a scheduled courtesy visit  to your unit. While commending you for your valuable contributions for the  smooth running of the freight forward Industry, we are ready and available to work with your unit in any way possible to promote progress in the sub sector”