Immigration Officials Seize Nigerian Supporters Club’s Food Items

Brazilian Immigration officials has finally explained why they seized food items carried by members of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club at the Sao Paulo International Airport on Monday, 16 June, 2014.

According to Brazilian Immigration officials at the airport, bringing in food items without official notice was prohibited in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the food items seized from the Nigerian supporters included large quantity of garri, semovita, vegetable oil, fried meat, fish, food seasoning and spices.

The Secretary-General of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club (NFSC), Samuel Ikpea, has however, assured that the club would ensure the recovery of its members’ food items seized by the Immigration officials.

Ikpea said the club’s leadership has stepped up action towards ensuring the food items were returned to their members.

“We are going to be here for almost a month and we need our local food to sustain members of the club who are here to cheer the national team,’’ he said.

It was also gathered that the club’s President-General, Rafiu Oladipo, had contacted Nigeria’s Ambassador in Brazil to assist towards the possible recovery of the seized food items.

* Members of Nigerian Supporters Club

Investigation revealed that it has always been the practice of the club’s members to travel with Nigerian food items to every international football competition they were attending.

One member of the club, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed she spent over N50,000 in buying and preserving the food items.

“It has always been our practice to travel abroad in support of the national teams with our national food items.

“I hope we are able to recover these food items, because many of them were already paid for by some members on the trip,” she said.

Some of the members of the club, who mostly love eating Nigerian food, told newsmen that staying in Brazil would remain difficult for them without Nigerian food.

They said they would have to start eating foreign foods which they were not used to, if they were going to survive the situation.

The Nigerian supporters club are in Brazil to cheer the Super Eagles who are in Group F at the 2014 World Cup finals.

It could be recalled that it was reported few hours ago that FIFA officials also confiscated some of the instruments of the supporters club when they arrived venue of Super Eagles world cup match against Iran on Monday.

The football governing body claimed instruments like drums, trumpets are not allowed into match venues to avoid noise.

As at the time of compiling this report, all the instruments seized from the Nigerian supporters are yet to be returned to them.

Source: Legit.ng