British journalist comes into contact with fake grains

On Tuesday, December 20, 2016, the Federal Operations Unit, Ikeja, of the

The next day, Wednesday, December 21, 2016, a BBC journalist Martin Patience went to take a look at the plastic rice that was confiscated.

According to Patience, the counterfeit rice looked like the real thing and he was nearly fooled into thinking that it was real rice. "Whoever made it did an exceptionally good job - on first impression, it would have fooled me. When I ran the grains through my fingers nothing felt out of the ordinary" wrote the BBC journalist.

Martin Patience observed that the fake rice had a "faint chemical odour."

"Customs officials say when they cooked up the rice it was too sticky - and it was then abundantly clear this was no ordinary batch," wrote the BBC journalist.

According to the report, grains of the fake rice were sent to a laboratory to determine what they were made of.

On Wednesday, December 21, 2016, Pulse Gist published a story of how the residents of Jos city in Plateau have been thrown into panic mode after it was rumoured that some unscrupulous businessmen have smuggled 'plastic rice' into the state from China.

Some residents of the town who spoke to Daily Trust said that people are not sure what is the truth about the plastic rice but that the rumour has slowed business in that sector.