The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Kano/Jigawa command, has seized parrots billed for trafficking outside the country along a border town to Niger.

The parrots close to 100 packed in four crates were handed over to the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA).

The command’s controller, Muhammad Umar, who made this known on Wednesday, said smuggling the birds was against the agreement of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora in which Nigeria is a signatory.

According to the controller, the suspected smugglers escaped before officers of the NCS apprehended them.

Speaking, Kano State Director of NESREA, Lukman Lawan, appealed to the general public to cooperate with the agency by sharing relevant information that would help in putting a halt to such trades.

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“Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species. The essence of this is to stop the transboundary movement of endangered species of Fauna and Flora (plants and animals respectively) in order to conserve them and avoid them from going into extinction.

“We also don’t want other countries to use Nigeria as illegal transborder routes to carry out their illegal trades,” Lawan said.

The birds were eventually conveyed to Kano Zoological Garden where they were received by the Kano State Wildlife.

The Star