Osun lawmaker, Fadahunsi seeks ban of fairly used clothes

Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariffs, Francis Fadahunsi, has canvassed a ban on the importation of fairly used clothes popularly called ‘Okrika’.

He said the ban on fairly used clothes was necessary to contain the spread of Coronavirus, saying that continued importation of the items into the country was dangerous, especially as countries battle the dreaded disease.

Fadahunsi, a retired Assistant Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), also said presently there were many containers with clothing materials from China at the Onne Port in Rivers State waiting to be cleared.

This, he stressed, could be dangerous for the health of the nation, if allowed unfettered entry into the country.

Speaking in Osogbo, Osun State at the weekend, he noted that the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health and other health agencies needed to move fast to prevent an epidemic of the coronavirus by ensuring that used clothing materials from China and other parts of Europe were totally banned.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker said it was sickening that Nigerians import all manner of things that could be injurious to peoples’ health just in a bid to make money.

“In spite of the ban on fairly used goods in the Customs books, ‘Okrika’ is still massively imported into the country by desperate businessmen and women,” he said.

He drew the nation’s attention to the massive importation of frozen foods in recent years, insisting that frozen foods, which were preserved by chemicals before being imported to the country was responsible for the high rate of cancer among Nigerians.

Fadahunsi said the craze for foreign things, social status and unpatriotic attitude of Nigerians was putting the health of the nation in jeopardy, lamenting that the situation was so alarming that soup and other edibles were now being imported from China to Nigeria.

He added that Customs officials and other relevant agencies should focus their searchlight on the nation’s ports, especially the Onne Port where cargoes bringing in items from China await clearing into the country.

On the $22.8b facility request the Senate approved for President Muhammadu Buhari, he said the loan was not in the best interest of the country, insisting that the country’s debt profile was scary to the extent that generations yet unborn will keep paying the debts, which may end up not being properly used.