By Stephen Ubanna
The expansion of the advanced B’ Odogwu, technology, which is an indigenous technology developed by the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, to replace Nigerian Integrated Customs Information, System, NICIS, which was a foreign technology , managed by Webb Fontaine, due to repeated server failures at Apapa and Tin-can Island Commands, last March, by Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, appears, to have provided an added advantage to Compt. Babatude Olomu to have beamed his searchlight at the Apapa port to ensure that the right thing was done by importers with their agents.
Bearing in mind that the solution to Nigerian Trade requires the Asian country of Chinese firm, Huwei Technologies, which had signed a 20-year agreement with the NCS, ‘’to provide all the facilities on Customs operations at the nation’s seaports and excise processes, manifest processing, licensing, revenue collections, anti-smuggling activities and information sharing which was said to have resulted in the development of the B’Odogwu system.
Given that the Chinese firm, Huwei technologies had the mandate to provide these core services which include ‘’Unified Customs Management System, UCMS, Trade Portal, Electronic Cargo Tracking System, Enforcement System, Telecommunication system, Video Surveillance, and Connectivity, including Border Management System, NII, HRM, DMS and AMS, to the service, may have emboldened Compt. Olomu and his Enforcement Team to clip the wings of the organized international criminal network. This is evident going by the spectacular Contraband seizures that was said to have been made by the Command between January,1st, 2025 and April 30, 2025.
The CGC, close monitoring of the implementation of the B’Odogwu facility at the Port Multi services Terminal Limited, PTML, which was the pilot phase of the project in October 2024, and its expansion to the Apapa and Tin-Can Island Commands, to get firsthand information on the challenges faced by the Commands in the implementation of the new technology may have given the Customs helman opportunity to showcase the Apapa Command spectacular seizures of Contraband goods to the public on Tuesday, April 30, 2025.
The presence of the CGC, at the Apapa Command, Enforcement Unit, where the seized Containerized cargoes were detained was said to attracted some other five Area Controllers from the Lagos axis to the event.
The Value News online Magazine had sighted Comptrollers Mohammed Salisu Shuaibu, Area Controller, Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, Frank Okechukwu Onyeka, Tin-can Island Command, Tennny Daniyan, PTML, Joy Edelduok, Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, KLT, Ben Nkem Oramalugo, Seme, Bisi Alade, Ogun II, Abeokuta, Ogun State, and other senior officers and sister security agencies personnel, amidst tight security.
The Customs Comptroller General who was said to have driven to the venue of of the event accompanied by the Area Controllers, within the Lagos axis and other top officials including a DCG, from the Customs Headquarters and a retinue of other security agencies personnel who, when he had settled down for the day’s activities had opened up.
Based on the brief from the Apapa Command Area Controller, the CGC, had revealed that the Command had made the Contraband seizures which involved 11 separate interdictions, comprising of 5 x ‘’40’’ Container and 2x’’20’’ Containers and four other seizures of loosely Concealed items in one or two of the Containers. Valuation experts had put the value of the seized items at over N920 billion.
He noted that going by the way the fraudulent importers had carried out their operations this time around, which many believes are much different from the tactics of the regular smugglers that the officers confront on a daily basis, clearly shows ‘’the involvement of a sophisticated international criminal network’’.
He had asserted that the fraudulent importers may have resorted to carrying out their nefarious activities in Nigeria by going ‘’to countries with weaker pharmaceutical export controls to exploit the regulatory loopholes’’. Note that two of the intercepted Containers at the Apapa port were said to have been loaded with pharmaceutical products concealed beneath skin creams.
It would be recalled that there had been an increased importation of non- pharmaceutical security threads, including drones and telecommunications gadgets through the Apapa port in the recent months by the fraudulent importers ‘’to test the waters’’ before extending the shipment to other ports like Tin-can Island, PTML, KLT, and south eastern ports of Onne, Delta and Calabar ports but got it wrong.
The Magazine online which had followed the CGC, and other dignitaries to have a closer look at the intercepted Containers had found out that there was a growing pattern false declaration, as the importers had resorted to labeling the shipped pharmaceutical products as general merchandise or Cosmetics in an attempt to evade payment of duty and detection.
Suffice it to say that some of the intercepted were loaded mostly with unregistered pharmaceutical products that had not been certified by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control , NAFDAC, to enter into the Nigerian market, restricted security gadgets like drones and telecommunication equipment, without the approval of the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, under the close watch of Nuhu Ribadu, an Assistant Inspector General of Police ,rtd and who incidentally was a former Chairman of Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC.
One of the seized items was said to have been falsely declared as Merchandise goods but in reality, were concealed drones and telecommunication equipment. The CGC, may have sent a message to the importers with their clearing agents that the era of false declaration, underpayment and Concealment is over as the officers at the Commands which had been are linked to the B’ Odogwu facility would not relent in their efforts in truncating the perceived third strategy that had been adopted by the criminal elements in carrying out their nefarious activities.
He was emphatic that the diversification of shipments from the trading partners in Asia, Europe, United Kingdom, UK and countries in North and South America, particular, the Asian country of China, would be a failed project.
He was said to have sounded it loud and clear to the hearing of the fraudulent importers with their agents that mixing shipment of unregistered pharmaceutical products, expired food items like Margarine, and restricted other technological items in one Container would remain a failed project because of the tight security at the ports.
The athletic-built Customs helms, may have gladden the heart of Compt. Olomu and his officers when he disclosed that the Apapa Command, had demonstrated professionalism in the discharge of its duties, an indication that it is working in line with the national strategic economic development and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Executive Orders on port operations and had further scaled up surveillance across the premier port.
The Customs Chief, who could not hide his feelings had said that that the Command may have adopted the bold initiatives in dealing decisively with the transnational criminal networks attempting to breach the country’s import protocols with the implementation of the B’Odogwu system. Compt. Olomu has sounded a note of warning to the fraudulent importers using the Apapa port to carry out their nefarious activities that they are in for tougher times as security appears to have been tightened up at the port and the rejig of the officers holding strategic positions in the Command that International Criminal elements have found it difficult to penetrate, let alone bribe their way.
