When the President Muhammadu Buhari administration shut the country’s borders in October 2019, the government claimed the move was aimed at boosting local production and halting smuggling.

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) swung into action to keep out rice, turkey, chicken and other goods coming into the country from Benin Republic, but the move yielded poor results as these foreign goods still flood Nigerian markets.

On February 21, FIJ published its investigative report – “Undercover as a Smuggler” – detailing how customs officers conspired with smugglers to import these goods through the closed borders.

Following this report, this newspaper learned that smugglers had begun to temporarily suspend their activities for fear of exposure, and this move had led to a scarcity of turkey, chicken, gizzards and other poultry products in Lagos, the country’s economic centre.

On Tuesday, FIJ visited cold rooms and frozen food stores in Lagos to find out if and why they no longer had the products.

‘CUSTOMS ARE NOW WORKING’

When FIJ visited Kingfishers Cold Room in the Orelope area of the state, we found a couple of customers shopping for fish.

Our reporter approached a salesman and asked if there was turkey for sale. This salesman shook his head and said, “We no get turkey again.” He told FIJ the store had no chicken or gizzards either.

READ MORE: Undercover as a Smuggler

“Na only fish dey for now,” the salesman said. “No chicken and turkey for market again because dem don close boarder.”

Our reporter reminded him that the borders had been closed since 2019, but the salesman said, “We dey buy from Cotonou before but stock don finish because customs just close border now now. Na only fish dey, and we no know when things go change.”

He bemoaned the poor patronage, saying the store would have been bubbling with activities if they had chicken and turkey. He said not many people were buying fish.

CHICKEN NOW SCARCE, EXPENSIVE

FIJ visited several markets, from Alimosho to Ikeja to Iju Ishaga, but was unable to find turkey or gizzards. Where our reporter found chicken, the prices varied.

“Chicken de, but na N5,000 now for kilo,” a trader told FIJ.

Several frozen food traders either did not have the products or had chicken at higher prices than they used to. Several of them told FIJ they could no longer shop for them in Cotonou, Benin Republic, because of sudden resistance from customs.

In Iju Ishaga, FIJ found a trader opening shop in the evening, and while speaking with her, she said she had been away for most of the day as there were not enough goods to sell.

She told FIJ she only had fish and chicken for sale, and the market was affected by scarcity.

When FIJ called Abdullahi Maiwada, spokesman of the NCS, he said the NCS was working to effect the president’s directive and would not be allowing products into the country through closed borders.