We’re Not Lowering Our Alert Level Regarding National Security’ Adeniyi, Customs Boss

Y EGUONO ODJEGBA

Following recent clamp down on the activities of criminal elements sabotaging the nation’s economic productive plans in addition to those impeding the national well-being and security of citizens, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it remains upbeat and committed to riding the criminals and their sponsors out of town, with undivided focus.
Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi who made the declaration recently at Onne Rivers State, while announcing the seizure of a large cache of arms and ammunition said the NCS is not lowering its vigilance in ensuring that national security is preserved, maintained and carefully guarded.

The CGC said the Service remains alive to its responsibility at all time and will continue to be a step ahead of unscrupulous traders, criminal elements and their collaborators.
While explaining the criminal connivance to smuggle out the container of arms and ammunition out of the Onne Port which he says has been under the Service’s intelligence radar for awhile, he announced that three suspects connected with the dangerous import were arrested, and said the Service in collaboration with the relevant government agencies will investigate and bring those involved to book.
He said “Today, we gather to inform you about the recent significant developments in our operations to secure our nation’s borders and ensure public safety. You may recall that at a press briefing of this nature held recently at the Tin Can Island Port Lagos, I had disclosed attempts by criminal elements seeking to exploit our trade facilitation friendly posture to compromise our processes and procedures.
“With our robust Risk Management System, we have always remained a step ahead of their moves. When these attempts revolve around revenue generation, our automated audit systems at different level enable us to trace, track and recover the revenue.
“However, when efforts are geared towards creating actions that will produce irreversible consequences on national security, our alert level is elevated to match the threats posed to us.
“And so it was the case with this 1X40 foot container MAEU165396, which originated from Turkey, and based on a number of risk factors, became a subject of interest.”
Explaining the amount of works and intelligence collaboration that went into the operation, the CGC said:
“We had followed its sail across the Continents, as we benefitted immensely from credible information produced through our collaboration with the intelligence communities, both at the local, national and international levels.
“Working within our local structures, we followed diligently as the Importer attempted to circumvent our procedure through the outlet of a Private Bonded Terminal. Consequently, on Friday, 21 June 2024, the suspicious container was subjected to thorough physical examination.”
To match words with actions, the CGC announced the suspension of the bonded terminal and clearing agents linked to the awful import, valued at Four Billion, One Hundred and Seventy-One Million, Seven Hundred and Ten Thousand Naira (₦4,171,710,000.00).
To further demonstrate his administration’s resolve to walk the talk, Adeniyi who was the Apapa Area Command after the Onne Guns briefing warned officers and men of the service, including bonded terminal operators, terminal operators, shipping companies, importers and their agents to take heed and adjust or be ready to face the full wrath of the law.
This is even as the CGC affirm that while the NCS and its officers and men remain committed to carrying out its duty with utmost courtesy and respect, professional thoroughness will also apply, sticking by the rules of engagement with firm stance.
He warned that his benign and smiling face should not be misconstrued as a weakness as he was going to trace and track down all the merchants of death and their collaborators who were bringing in arms and ammunition and other illicit items into the country.
Addressing officers of the command on the need to be security conscious, he encouraged officers to draw a sharp line between duty and friendly disposition.
“Since the beginning of this year, I am sure you must have known or heard about a customs officer or his family that was kidnapped. I am sure you must have heard or known a colleague or a family member of a customs officer that has been a victim of a terrorist attack, either in the North East, in the North West, or in the South.
“So customs officers are not isolated from what is happening in the rest of the country. I just wanted to use those instances to draw your attention to the fact that we live in a very, very dire situation in the country. Unfortunately, the responsibility of making it better lies in the hands of all of us.
“The responsibility of correcting this anomaly lies in our action or inaction. You are following the developments. What happened yesterday at the Lagos Airport Command with the seizure of arms and military accouterments. Before last week, before the one of yesterday, there was a big incident that happened in Onne.
“And they are going through our hands. Declarations that are made by these people go through our desk. They are inside our system. What it means is that we have an onerous response. And we also have an onerous responsibility to address the national security emergency that we face in Nigeria”.
He continued: “What the trend has shown is that they are desperate, they have a network of support, they have people who conspired with them, some of them within the service, some of them outside the service. And we have a responsibility not to allow them to bring those death niche merchandise into Nigeria.
“Of course, you know that they come in different forms. It’s either that they are wrongly declared, or they come to compromise our process and procedure. And the most important one is the fact that goods that are supposed to be scanned, or those that are supposed to undergo physical examination, are not subjected to it”
“So, these goods are released, they are not scanned, or they are never inspected. That’s one way of doing it. The other one is when we say that they are going on Transire to 100 terminals, and they never get there.”
Using the circulation of illegal arms as a basis for the spike in the general insecurity across the country, Adeniyi did not mince minces when he told his officers that with total lock down of the system against entry of these illegal arms, banditry, kidnapping and the general atmosphere of insecurity to which officers and men of the service are not immune to will reduce.
“That customs officer, who would be the victim of kidnapping, who would be the victim of terrorist attack, that family that might be facing this kind of problem, might be yours or mine if we decide to abuse the oath of office that we swore to uphold. So, it’s all up to you.
“But the bad news for all of you is that we work with a system that has track and trace. What each and all of you do with our system can be tracked. It can be tracked, it can be traced. We can attribute them to you in the next seven years or beyond.
“What you do not do can also be attributed to you. So, either way, we can be located and we can be called upon to account for our actions or inaction. So, I urge you to lead to your responsibility. This nation is ours. Revenue is important. Trade facilitation is important. We are getting it right on those ends. We must not fail on our mandate in national security. There are containers of fake drugs that are waiting to come out of the port as I speak.
“There are containers of arms and ammunition that are there. There are containers of frozen poultry products under import prohibition that are there as we are speaking. And we have all the risk indicators to show them to us.
“We have everything it takes to trace the importers, to do system audits on our own, and put question marks on some of them. So, the responsibility lies with all of us to live up to the oath of service, the oath of allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
In a bombshell, the CGC said, “If anybody is caught on the wrong side of the law, if anybody is traced to these activities, if any bonded warehouse owner is traced, if any customs agent is traced to it, we will not spare anybody, we will not spare anybody.
“Those of you who know the Yoruba proverb…because people say I smile too much, that I am too friendly, that I am too soft, and I am happy to be given all of that. But those who do not understand Yoruba should go and hire a consultant to translate the meaning of Eyin ta fi bomo rerin naaa lafin geje (The same tooth we use to laugh with children is the same we use to bite them.)”