From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Truck owners in Borno have decried the seizure of 21 of their vehicles by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged food diversion.
The owners, who are members of the Heavy Duty Trucks Owners and Drivers associations, Nigeria Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), refuted the EFCC’s allegation of diversion.
“We are not involved in any diversion. We didn’t carry foodstuffs. The trucks impounded by EFCC carried building materials and not foods,” leader of the group, Alhaji Bako Modu, said at a press briefing in Maiduguri, yesterday.
He urged the state government to wade into the matter as truck owners and drivers have been out of work. He asked the EFCC to release the 21 vehicles to the owners and free all the drivers. He said the vehicles were seized by the commission at two major entry and exit points of the state capital. He also claimed members of the group sighted some of the seized vehicles being used by the EFCC officials.
EFCC, on Tuesday, announced that its operatives in the Maiduguri zonal office seized “21 trucks loaded with food and non-food items.” It claimed the trucks were heading towards N’djamena, the Chad capital and Nigeria’s neighbour, the Central African Republic (CAR).
“The trucks were intercepted in a sting operation at major exit routes along Kalabiri/Gamboru Ngala and Bama roads, Borno State,” the commission’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, disclosed in a statement.
He said the EFCC investigation showed that food items were “cleverly concealed in the trucks that would have gone undetected, but for the eagle-eyed vigilance of operatives of the commission.”