The Nigeria Customs Service on Thursday destroyed hundreds of expired bags of imported rice, cartons of cigarettes, among others, in Yola.

Mr Adetoye Francis, the Area Controller in charge of Adamawa and Taraba said the destruction of the items worth millions of naira was to serve as deterrent to the importers.

“Today, we are destroying bags of expired foreign rice, cartons of cigarettes and other contraband smuggled into the country by some unpatriotic citizens.

“The Comptroller General of Customs and the entire service have zero tolerance to contrabands.

“The CG urgently wants to see positive reforms of the service and greater revenue generation for the country,” Francis said.

He warned smugglers against bringing in contrabands because the service had upgraded its policing of the vast land borders of Adamawa and Taraba.

Francis reiterated that the service was poised to carrying out its mandate of checking smuggling, facilitation of trade and protection of lives, among other functions in the area.