By Stephen Ubanna
In spite of the fact that Barshir Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs Service, has not declared a state of Emergency at the Premier Port of Apapa as obtained at the port of Onne, in Rivers state, to stop the disturbing trend where the Apapa port appears to have become the favourite destination of carriers of prohibited pharmaceutical drugs, Compt. Babatunde Olomu, is leaving no stone unturned to deal decisively with the fraudulent importers with their agents.
The declaration of a state of emergency at the Onne port, may have forced the fraudulent importers to relocate to Apapa port owning to its large size and the too many bonded terminals under its control to take delivery of illicit and dangerous goods at the Apapa port but got it wrong.
Unknown to the economic saboteurs, Comt. Olomu, who had dealt severely with the fraudulent importers with their agents as an Assistant Compt. and one-time acting Area Controller, of Cross river/Akwa Ibom Command and brought them to their knees in the absence of a substantive Area Controller had tightened up security at the Command exit gate that it is very difficult the officers to it.
A senior Customs officer who spoke with The Value News on line Magazine on condition of anonymity dis closed that he works closely with the top hierarchy of Trade and Tariff Department who regularly furnishes him with information on the type of imported goods coming into the port and to be on alert by subjecting every Container to thorough scanning and physical search as well.
The Customs Compt. who had beamed his searchlight at the premier port and regularly visits the APM terminal, described as one of the biggest in the West and Central African Subregion, in turn was said to have regularly being in touch with one Mohammed, a DC, overseeing the Command Enforcement to ensure that the right is done.
An informed source to the Magazine online that that DC, who monitors what is happening at the port and the scanning sites through the Close Circuit Television, CCTV, in his office had ensured that that no fraudulent importer with their agent exit their cargoes at the port.
It was not surprising why the Customs Command had made the Apapa port a no-go area for criminal elements who operates with their foreign collaborators in the foreign ports with less stringent import and export policies to ship any type of cargoes from Nigeria.
There is no gain saying the fact that much of these dangerous cargoes, particular, the pharmaceutical products are manufactured from the Asian country of China, the biggest economy in the world and one of the masterminds of the BRICS currency to stop the use of the North American country of the United States, US, dollars in international transactions but may not be shipped from the country to Nigeria.
The economic giant appears to have come to the conclusion that most of these shippers are using the Taiwan to ship these dangerous cargoes to Nigeria and other trading partners across the world that it has moved to take over the country which is not in the world map just as Russian Federation is on the path of taking over Ukraine, which is funding the terrorists in the West African sub-region despite support from US, France , Germany and other member countries of the North Atlantic TreatyOrganisation, NATO.
The Customs Comptroller may have taken advantage of the deployment the advanced form of the B-Odogwu platform, an indigenous technology which had replaced the Nigerian Integrated Customs Information System II, a foreign technology operated and maintained by WEBB Fontaine for the Service over the years without plan for technology transfer to clip the wings of the fraudulent importers.
The B- Odogwu technology, popular, Unified Customs Management System, UCMS, the Magazine online was informed has several components like trade portal, Electronic Cargo Tracking System, Enforcement System, Telecommunication System, Video Surveillance System and Connectivity System. This is in addition to border Management System, NII, Human Resource Management, HRM, DMS and AMS, meaning that there is no room to Conceal any dangerous cargo without being detected.
Compt. Olomu, who many believes knows how to take any situation to his advantage to boost the Command revenue generation and anti-smuggling operations, was said to have lived up to expectation. This is evident going by the Contraband seizures by the Command in the second quarter of 2025, which was said to have been showcased to the public by the Area Controller, on Thursday, Jully 10, 2025, the nation’s Commercial nerve center, with a warning to the fraudulent importers to desist from unwholesome importation of foods and drugs, which was a mark of engaging in illicit trade to sabotage the local industries.
The Command was said to have intercepted and seized nine Containerised cargoes loaded with unregistered pharmaceutical products, used clothing, expired margarine, wild animals’ skin, and Codeine syrup, a feat insider confirmed was achieved a few days ago.
According to the Customs Comptroller the seized nine Containers formed part of the 27 the 27 Containers that had had been seized by the Command between January and June 2025 with a Duty Paid Value of N9,267,443,966.00.
An elated Compt. Olomu, had said that the Containerized cargoes seizure was inclusive of 10 Containers of unregistered pharmaceuticals and two additional Containers of Codeine seizure and two Containers of stolen vehicles from Canada and four Containers of second- hand clothing among other smuggled items into the country through the premier port.
With the spectacular Contraband seizures, which includes unregistered pharmaceutical products in six months of 2025, Compt. Olomu has sent a signal to the Border smugglers that ‘’the Command will never compromise the health, well-being, safety of Nigerians on the altar of trade facilitation’’.
He may have gladdened the heart of Nigerians when he stated that every Consignment passing that trough the Apapa port would continue to under thorough scanning and physical examination as required by the Customs and Excise Management Act, 2023.
Not withstanding the impressive anti-smuggling drive of the Command which was said to have been necessitated by the support of the Customs Comptroller General, the Apapa Area Controller, who was said to have tightened all areas of revenue Leakage at the port was said to have ensured that appropriate revenue is collected from all genuine cargoes passing through the port. The collection and payment of the over N1.37 trillion revenue into the Federal Government coffers in six months by the Command speaks volume.
The message was very clear that the Apapa Command stand chances of surpassing its undisclosed 2025, target by substantial margin.
As a prelude to beating the 2025 revenue target, may have informed why the Customs Comptroller who is not ready to take any excuse from the Officers -in -charge of the Bonded Terminals, particular, APM terminal for failing to meet their revenue to redouble their efforts to surpass their targets at all cost to boost the Command revenue collection that win position it to sustain its award winning records and even add the CGC Special award to it as the Best anti-smuggling Command, both land Sea this 2025. This is a big challenge to other Customs Area Controllers, at the seaports and Land border stations across the country to sit up.
