By Stephen Ubanna
On Monday, September 8, 2025, all roads led to Apapa Command, overseeing the premier port of Apapa port. The stakeholders and other industry operators have been invited to witness the official hand of running of the Apapa Command, which handles over 60% of the imports into the country by Assistant Comptroller General, ACG,Babatunde Olomu, Ph.D, described in maritime circles by stakeholders ‘’ not only as Administrator but as an expert in managing cris’’ to Compt. Emmanuel Oluwadare Osoba.
The event which was to kick-start by 1PM but by 12 Noon, the Auditorium Hall, which was like a mini-stadium, was filled to capacity, that officers and other stakeholders who came late did not have a Seat but to stand for the over two hours of the event, just to catch a glimpse of the ACG. Olomu and his Successor, Compt. Osoba and to shake hands with them before their departure
The industry stakeholders were said to have taken advantage of the opportunity provided by the Handover from one Customs Area Controller at the Apapa Command, who had truly performed while office to a successor to pour encomiums on him and ‘’wishing him the best and God Guidance’’ in his new role at the Customs Headquarters’’.
There were goodwill messages from the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders,NAGAFF, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Lagos Chambers of Commerce, Industry, LCCI, Joint Freight Forwarders, and Frederik Klinke, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, of APMT, described as one of the biggest private terminals in the West and Central African sub-regions and several others, ‘’praising him for taking Apapa Command to another level’’.
good will messages from the industry stakeholders bear eloquent testimony to their good working relationship with the then Compt. Olomu, the immediate past Area Controller of the Apapa Command despite been pushed to pay the appropriate duties as areas of leakages were blocked.
Described as ‘’ performer’’, who had piloted the affairs of the Apapa Command to win the 2024, Customs Best Command in Revenue Generation and Trade Facilitation just as he, Dr. Olomu, clinched the CGC’s Award as for ‘’Customs Area Controller of the year Award’’, the outgoing Apapa Command Area Controller beamed with smiles, as the era of CAC which he had said was meant to bring challenges, proffer solutions to keep Nigeria better has come to an end’’ showing signs of fulfillment.
Although the Actual revenue that was said to have been collected and paid into the Federation Account by the Apapa Command that was said to have qualified it to win the award as the Best in terms Customs’’ revenue generation’’ was not made public during the CGC’S Awards night on November 29, 2024, at the CHIDA Event Centre, FCT, but Abdulahi Usman, an Assistant Comptroller and the Command Head of the Command Public Relations Unit, may have taken advantage of the handover of leadership of the premier Command to the in-coming Area Controller, Compt. Osoba, to let the cat of the bag. The Command spokesperson had said that at the end of December 31, 2024, the Command had collected and paid into the government coffers the sum of N2.3 trn, amidst applause.
Until Compt. Olomu’s elevation to the enviable rank of ACG, he and his management Team, were said to have kept a closely guided secret the revenue target that had been set for the Command this 2025 Fiscal year by the Headquarters from the N6.5 trn revenue target that had been set for the Service by the Federal Government.
Determined to meet and even surpass the N3 trn revenue target that had been set for it by the Adeniyi led Management team for the 2025 , fiscal year, the former Apapa Command Area Controller who may have been encouraged by the over N2 trn revenue collection in 2024, described as unprecedented in Customs circles and the various Awards won by the Command at the last CGC’s Awards Night in Abuja, was said to pursue with vigour towards achieving the 2025, revenue target, with little or no noise .
The former Comptroller Olomu, who could not hide his feelings had said that Command had sustained its revenue track records for the 15 months he had been at the Apapa Command because ‘’ it had stayed focused laying the bricks for improvement in our revenue collection in hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis’’.
Given an insider information, he had said that the Apapa Command had set a benchmark of a daily revenue collection of N18.2 billion in October 2024, but over shoot the figure in July 2025, with a daily revenue figure of N18.9 billion, which became a topic of discussions where two or three industry stakeholders, including officers have gathered to discuss about their job and share ideas to boost their operation and enhance Command revenue generation.
The outgoing Apapa Area Controller appears to have thrown a big challenge to Compt. Osoba, to ensure that that the N3 trn revenue target set for the Command is fully collected and paid into the Federation account this 2025, as the Command under his Leadership, between January and August 2025, had already collected and paid into the Federation Account the sum of N1, 834,789,499,850.00 trn, leaving outstanding balance of about N1.1.165 trn or there about to make up the total N3 trn for the year, with a target in mind ‘’to retain its title as the Best revenue and trade Facilitation Command and even extend it to being the best in enforcement in the upcoming CGC Awards this 2025’’.
The former Apapa Command Area Controller may have left Apapa Command but his legacies still remain. This is evident with the Nigerian participation in the African Continental Free Trade AfCFTA, which was said to have resulted in the shipment of Nigerian manufactured goods to the East African country of Kenya and five other counties within the African Continent through the Apapa port just as the Command was said to have also recorded other major accomplishments during the former Apapa Area Controller’s tenure at the Apapa Command. In July, 2024, the then Customs Comptroller, was said to have supervised the Launching of Nigeria’s participation in the AfCTA Guided Trade Initiative, GTI,
Compt. Osoba, may not have to worry much about meeting the N3trn revenue target set for the Command, as Boniface Anniebonnam, founder of National Association of NAGAFF, who may have spoken the mind of other stakeholders had assured him that ‘’the same support which the agents and Freight Forwarders had given to his predecessor to succeed would also be given to him and to do better than him at the Apapa Command and be far ahead of other competitors in other Customs Formations across the country.
The Customs ACG, would even want Compt. Osoba to do better than him in office in terms of revenue collection and even beat the N18.9 billion daily collection which he had set. Appealing to the members of NAGAFF, ANLCA, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, NCMDLCA, Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria, AFFLON, and other Groups to throw their weight behind Compt. Osoba, who has come with the zeal to deliver on the service mandate, using ‘’the benchmark of revenue trade facilitionn and revenue generation’’ he noted that it is the only way the Command can sustain its unbeaten record of the best in trade facilitation revenue collection.
Besides making the optimal revenue collection for the government, another major task which the Apapa new Area Controller may have to pursue with vigour is to devise new strategies to clip the wings of the smugglers who connive with their foreign collaborators , mostly in the Asian countries of China, India, Hongkong, Vietnam, Taiwan , and other parts of the world ‘’to bring into the country prohibited pharmaceutical products, drugs, expired food items, and other items including drones’’.
Until ACG Olomu, handed over to his successor, on Monday, September 8, 2025, he was said to have made life completely unbearable for the smugglers and their foreign collaborators with the collaboration of other security agencies.He had alluded to the support of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, under the close watch of Brig. Gen. Muhammed Marwa, a former Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa during the deceased former President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration and the Department of State Services, DSS.
He was said to have also alluded to the support of Port Quarantine, Port Health, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Commission, NAFDAC, and Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON and Apapa port Authorities of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA and the Nigerian Police, NPF, particular, marine police which the Command had received from them to facilitate in doing their job at the port.
With the support of these other securities at the port, he noted that within the 15 months, he was at the helms of affairs, the Apapa Command, they made 75 seizures of various item concealed in 65 ‘’40’’ Containers and 13 ‘’20’’ Containers.
‘’The seizures, according to the former Customs Comptroller comprises of fake, expired and substandard medicaments, controlled drugs such as codeine syrup, tramadol, Indian Hemp and other prohibited items like used clothing, pneumatic tyres and unprocessed wood’’.
ACG Olomu has a word of advice for Compt. Osoba ‘’to run an open- door policy, ensure regular interaction with stakeholders’’ to keep abreast with the problem of the traders and be able to address all the impediments associated with trade in the Lagos port of Apapa. He would also want him to make his telephone line readily available ‘’for information sharing and feedback with stakeholders’’. The message was very clear that he should be ready to work closely with the stakeholders to forestall any attempt to sabotage his efforts.
In apparent response to ACG Olomu’s remarks during the handover ceremony, Compt. Osoba, who looked calm, as ACG, Olomu , had left a very big shoe for him had vowed’’ to build on the revenue excellence that ha been set by his predecessor taking advantage of the Time Authorised Economic Operator, AEO and Time Limit, for cargo clearance policy measures of the CGC, deepen enforcement and enthrone intelligence driven operation to improve on what he had met on ground at the Apapa Command’’. As a former Compt. Customs Intelligence Unit,CIU, at the Customs Headquarters, Abuja, he has given his words ‘’to bring his experience to bear his new role as the Area Controller of Apa Command’’.
He may have gladdened the heart of the industry stakeholders when he promised to carry everybody along ‘’to sustain the tempo of the Command trade facilitation drive, revenue generation and enhanced anti-smuggling operations ‘’ noting that he cannot ‘’do it alone’’.
Notwithstanding the challenges of the B’Odgwu, an indigenous technology which had been developed to replace the Nigerian Integrated and Customs Information System, II, which was a foreign technology managed and operated by WEBB Fontaine on behalf of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, to administer its import and export procedures and added to the current efforts being made the CC, and his Management Team, to push to greater heights he had assured stakeholders that there was no cause on the operation of the ICT, facility. He noted that he cannot afford to fail as his predecessor had set a standard which must be sustained and improved upon, if need be.
