By Stephen Ubanna
For years politicians, businessmen and women, including those going on Hajj or Lasser Hajj to Saudi Arabia, and others going on pilgrimage to the Holy land of Jerusalem in the state of Irael, which is currently at war with the Hamas, had taken advantage of observing the religious injunction to smuggle in the North American of the United States, US, dollars and Saudi Arabia Riyals into the country undetected.
Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, who had worked closely with Jacob Gayan Buba, now GwomGwom Jos, plateau state, Hamman Bello, Bernard Nwadialo, Abdullahi Dikko and Hameed Ali, a retired Army Colonel and all former Comptroller Generals as the then service spokesperson and now the Customs CGC, may have known the importance of taking tough decisions to deal with smugglers, at the seaports, airports and land border stations across the country.
From the onset the CGC, had sent a message to the fraudulent importers with their agents and smugglers including the foreign travellers that it is no longer going to business as usual. The Customs Comptroller General, CGC, who was said to have initiated a policy thrust of Collaboration, Innovation and Consolidation and who has the backing of President Bola Ahmed Tnubu, was said to have read the riot act to the Comptrollers overseeing the various Customs Formations across the country to sit up to forestall false declarations, underpayment and Concealment to enhance the service’s revenue collections.
The Customs Formations Area Controllers may have read the handwriting on the wall that they cannot afford to fail the CGC, that they have tightened up security at the seaports, airports and Land border stations, that between June 2023, and now, the fraudulent importers with their agents and foreign travellers who are used to contravening the Nigerian Government financial regulations are no longer finding it funny.
From the Lagos port of Apapa Command, under the close watch of the revenue mobilizer, and 2024, Customs Comptroller of the year, Compt. Babatunde Olomu, Tin-can Island Command, South eastern port of Onee, Rivers state, to Murtala Muhammed International Airport MMIA, IKeja, Lagos, and Nnamdi Azikiwe, International Airport, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, the story is the same: tight security and spectacular seizures of arms and ammunitions, drugs, fake and expired pharmaceutical products and undeclared US dollars and other negotiable instruments.
The Customs Area Controllers overseeing the nation’s International airports may have taken a bold initiative this time around to go the extra-mile of ensuring adequate searching of travellers’ to ascertain the true contents of the bags.. The foreign travellers and religious worshippers in Saudi Arabia, particular, may have realized that the Customs operatives could no longer be outsmarted in smuggling the US dollars and other negotiable instruments intothe country that they have resorted other methods of doing so.
This is evident going by the huge amount of US, dollars that were said to have been intercepted at the Mallam Aminu Kano International airport in the ancient city of Kano and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, at different times.
Abdullahi Maiwada, an Assistant Comptroller and the service spokesperson, had reportedly issued a statement confirming that the FCT, Command, of the NCS, on Thursday, March 20, 2025, intercepted $US $93,000, concealed in a travellers’ luggage at the Nnadi Azikiwe International airport, Abuja.
The Customs spokesperson who had been alive to his duties with ears on ground to know what is happening in virtually all Customs Formations across the country in order to respond to questions from Journalists both within and outside the country had confirmed that’’ a credible intelligence gathering and vigilant baggage checks on a bound passenger at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport had led to the discovery of the US $93,00, which was said to have been neatly concealed in a Yoghurt carton.
Compt. Olumide Adebisi, the FCT, Command, Area Controller, who had dominated the Social Media Platforms and Newspaper headlines between March 20, 2025 and now, had said that the suspect , one Kamilu Abdullahi Sarina, 40- year- old, who had arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport, in the Nigerian Capital city of Abuja, onboard Ethiopian Airlines, Flight No.951 from Jedda, Saudi Arabia had concealed the huge amount of US , dollars in a carton of Y0ghort but however, played into the hands of his vigilant officers at the airport.
The Customs Comptroller had said that the Command which had acted on intelligence received from an informant earlier in the day, had emboldened the officers stationed at the airport to tighten up security which has not been seen in the recent time giving travellers, room to believe that something untoward is happening at the airport that needed close monitoring to apprehend the suspect.
The tight security mounted by the FCT Command officers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport may have dominated the discussions of the passengers both local and foreign as they watch the unfolding drama. The FCT Command Area Controller had revealed that the officer’s physical inspection of the Yoghurt cartons smuggled in from Jedda, Saudi Arabia, had led to the discovery of the concealed US $93,000.
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As a prelude to intercepting the US $93,000, the officers were said to have followed the suspect to the baggage hall where he was allowed to proceed to take delivery of the Yoghurt cartons but closely monitored to ensure that that not one of the cartons will develop wings.
Giving an insider information, the FCT Command Area Controller, had said that upon further inspection, the officers had discovered the unusual density of the Yoghurt cartons and subsequently instructed him to return for another round of inspections. He noted that in his presence, the officers checked each of the package and found the undeclared forex hidden inside Yoghurt carton.
He had alluded to how the officers discovered the smuggled US $93,000 from Saudi Arabia into Nigeria, stressing that ‘’the service advanced scanning technology had played a key role in detecting the unusual density of the suspect’s luggage.
He had said that the undeclared forex violates the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, EFCC, Anti-Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition, 2022 and the Nigerian Customs Service Act, 2023. The EFCC, and NCS, Acts, had mandated the Federal Government agencies ‘’to arrest and interrogate travellers in possession of forex exceeding $10,000 or its equivalent in other negotiable instruments.
The agencies Acts, had specially made it clear that any traveller in possession of over $10,000, or its equivalent in any other negotiable instrument must declare it to the NCS, upon arrival or departure from the country to avoid Customs harassment.
The Acts stated clearly that failure to do so by any traveller could result in the forfeiture of the huge amount, two years imprisonment or both if caught. The message was very clear that the 40-year -old suspect, Sarina, coming into Nigeria from Saudi Araba would lose the intercepted US $93,000 to the Nigerian Government and will still be prosecuted.
In the spirit of inter-agency relationship, and the Customs Comptroller General policy of collaboration with other agencies, the intercepted smuggled US $93,000 from Jedda, Saudi Arabia into the Nigeria was said to have been formally handed to the EFCC, for further investigations, interrogation and prosecution of the suspect in a Federal High Court within the FCT, Jurisdictions.
The spectacular, $US $93,000, seizure may have encouraged Compt. Adebisi, the FCT Command Area Controller, ‘’to warn that foreign travellers attempting to bypass the country’s financial regulations would face the strict legal consequences: losing the both the cash and still go to jail as enshrined in the Nigerian Laws.
Appealing to foreign travellers ‘’to comply with Nigeria’s financial regulations’’, particular, the area that has to do with the legal requirement to declare any cash or negotiable instrument in their possession, exceeding the approved threshold when travelling in or out of the country, Compt. Adebisi noted that it is the only way to avid playing into Customs officers’ hand at the nation’s international airports.
The interception of the US $93,000, at the busy Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport by Customs operatives is coming on the heels of the interception of US $1.4 million and an additional negotiable instrument of 135,900 Saudi Riyals undeclared at the Mallam Aminu Kano International airport, in the ancient city of Kano, during a routine Luggage check on an inbound passenger, one Hauwa Ibrahim Abdullahi, who was said to have arrived from Saudi Arabia.
The undeclared US dollars and Saudi Riyals, that was said to have exceeded the approved US, $10,000, was said to have been discovered where it was concealed in palm-date fruit packs locally referred to as ‘’Dabino’’.
AC. Maiwada, the Customs spokesperson had said that that the interception of the huge mount of US dollars and the Saudi Arabia Riyals, another negotiable instrument, aligns at different times gives an insight if the service’s commitment ‘’to enforcing the country’s financial regulations and preventing illicit financial flows across Nigeria’s borders by land , airports and seas’’.
