The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service
(NCS), Hameed Ali, yesterday announced the seizure of another 470 pump action
rifles smuggled into the country through the Tin Can ports in Apapa, Lagos. Consequently,
the NCS has placed all the nation’s gateways, including the seaports, land
borders and airports, on red alert to checkmate the smuggling of arms and
ammunition into the country.
The latest seizure
made it the fourth time customs officials intercepted smuggled pump action
rifles now totaling 2,671 pieces. The NCS had in January seized 661 pieces of
pump action rifles, which were found in 49 boxes. In May, the operatives
intercepted 440 pieces of assorted pump action rifles and on September 11,
2017, another 1100 rifles were intercepted at the Tin Can Island. All of these
originated from Turkey. Ali has therefore directed all customs formations at
the gateways to be on the alert and ensure a 100 per cent examination of
cargoes entering the country.
Apparently worried
about the rising rate of arms smuggling, the comptroller-general said the
situation had forced the customs to look beyond the ease of doing business
policy directive of the Federal Government, in order to ensure the security of
lives and property of the citizens. According
to him, the arms were concealed in a 20-foot container with No. CMAU189817/8
falsely declared as elbow plumbing plastics on its bill of lading. The importer
of the cargo is Great James Oil and Gas Limited, and the vessel is MV Arkas
Africa owned by Hull Blyth. Ali said: “Sadly, I am back here. Despite all the
seizures that have been made in the last eight months, these syndicates have
not relented in bringing these deadly weapons into our country.
“Having developed
the profile of most important items coming from Turkey, the controller of Tin
Can Island Customs command, Bashar Yusuf, had insisted on a 100 per cent
examination of any container that comes in. The result is what we see on the
ground. “It is an understatement to say
that we are being threatened as a country and our findings have shown that this
dastardly act is perpetrated by Nigerians. There are syndicates who are in
Turkey and manifesting this. We are yet to get to the bottom of the whole
thing. Are these meant for commercial purposes? Are they meant to be used by
insurgents, agitators as they called themselves, or kidnappers? That aspect of
the investigation is going on and I am sure that the State Security Service and
other agencies will unravel these,” he said.
Ali promised the
NCS would leave no stone unturned in taking the issues beyond the boarders of
Nigeria. “Tomorrow (today) we will be having the first diplomatic meeting with
the ambassador of Turkey basically on this issue. Already, our president has
discussed this at an international forum and he has been mandated to speak with
us and assist us to find the way forward,” he said. He lamented that about 80
per cent of importation comes under false declaration. “That is why we find it
difficult to effectively execute the ease of doing business, because if we
speed up clearance and depend on the document, these are what we will be
unleashing on our society. We have to subject the containers to a100 per cent
examination and that delays the honest people’s goods.”
According to the
customs boss, unless Nigerians begin to do the right thing and be honest in
their business dealings, it would be difficult to ensure the ease of doing
business. “That is the fact because if we do apply that, this is what we will
end up with and I don’t think we want to shy away from doing our duty because
we want to clear goods faster. The safety and wellbeing of Nigerians is more
important. The security of this country is more important to Nigeria Customs
Service than the money we will collect in terms of duty.”
According to Ali,
arms and ammunition are under prohibited items. “Aside from arms and ammunition
posing a serious challenge to national security, 80 per cent of illicit goods
coming into the country are often intercepted by customs under false
declaration. Therefore, we need the best technology to detect such items in
order to prevent them from going into wrong hands.” The Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the command,
Bashar Yusuf, said the seizure of the rifles was made possible through accurate
data profiling of the cargo right from the sea.
“Container
profiling is quite imperative in customs operations, because through this
means, we were able to track the arms from the vessel in the sea and
intercepted the items at the entry point.
“We profiled the container through the means of conveyance used in
bringing the weapons as well as data from the documents attached to it.
Similarly, we are currently profiling containers that are not only carrying
arms but other prohibited items, in order to prevent such offensive items from
going into our economic environment,” he said.
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