By Stephen Ubanna
Compt.Ben Nkem Oramalugo, PH.D, Area Controller, Seme Command, appears to have used much of February, and the first two weeks of March, 2025, to understudy the terrain of Seme jurisdictions and how the smugglers carry out their smuggling activities in order to strike without missing target.
It would be recalled that the Seme based smugglers were said to have changed tactics of operations when information filtered out last January that Compt. Oramalugo, who had been a thorn in the flesh of the smugglers in Oyo and Osun state operating had been deployed to the Area tooversee Seme Command.
There is no gain sayng the fact that smugglers operating around the Awaye suspended Lake, Igbo Oba in Kisi, Ebedi Hill in Iseyin, Asabari Hill in Saki, Akomare Hill in Iganna had heaved a sigh of relief that their major traducer had been redeployed by the Customs Authorities to Seme Command to contend with the smugglers there.
Their anger with Compt. Oramalugo, had been that most of their procured goods which are mostly prohibited items scheduled for the Nigerian market had fallen into the waiting hands of the Oyo/Osun Command officers who were said to be strategically positioned at the notorious routes used by the smugglers in the two south western states forcing many of them to lose millions of naira.
With a combination of his Academic background and experience in dealing with the diehard smugglers in the north western state of Kebbi and Oyo/Osun states in the south western Nigeria, may have given the Customs Comptroller the audacity to stand up squarely against the smugglers around the Seme Jurisdictions without blinking.
The Seme Customs Comptroller may have known there is no way the Command which has a mandate of revenue generation, trade facilitation, and suppression of smugglers could succeed without collaborating with other security agencies operating in the joint border Community including the Paramount Rulers and the Youths. He may have got it right as. He was said to have made lots of contacts in the Communities who were ready volunteer information to the Command on the activities of the smugglers.
The Seme and its environs-based smugglers who had claimed that they had met their parents in the business and would continue from where they had stopped appears to have known that the game is up when Compt. Oramalugo started combing the nooks and crannies of the notorious smugglers’ routes in the state.
Determined to clip the wings of the smugglers without shedding of blood from the onset, he was said to have ‘’appealed to parents and guardians residing in the border Communities between Nigeria and the neigbhouring Republic of Benin , ‘’to counsel the youths who collaborate with the smugglers and those involved in fireworks ‘’ disengage from such acts to avoid been used by the smugglers to obstruct Law Enforcement Officers in the discharge of their Legitimate duties’’ which many believe would be very unpleasant for anyone caught in the act.
True to his words of going all out to deal decisively with the smugglers, Compt. Oramalugo, may have taken out Wednesday, May 14, 2025, to showcase the various contraband items intercepted and seized by the Command from March 13, 2025 to May 13, 2025, described as a ‘’commendable results’’, , by stakeholders and other security agencies personnel at the Government warehouse, which was the location for the display of the seized items as they had clapped uncontrollably.
The displayed seized items by the Seme Command Area Controller includes unregistered Killer Pharmaceutical products, foreign par boiled rice, Cannabis Sativa, popular, Indian Hemp. This is in addition to Corrosive Mercury Canisters that was said to have been concealed with the Holy Quran in booth of a Japanese Toyota Car,red in colour and 750 Kegs of 25 litres each of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, popular, Petrol and 420 bottles of CA-C100 Vitamic c and Haldol Injection, 5ml..
The Customs Comptroller was emphatic that the Command had intercepted, 1,415, bags of foreign parboiled rice, 50Kg each, 30 cartons of foreign Tobacco, 50 cartons Ketchup Tomato,50 Bales of secondhand clothing, five vehicles, used as means of conveyance, and unregistered pharmaceuticals products, Cannabis Sativa, popular, Indian Hemp, produced from Ghana and other West African countries including the South American country of Brazil, unregistered pharmaceutical products
Also, the Command, according to the Seme Command Area Controller had impounded Foreign Coins as well. Note that foreign coins, under item 18 of Sschedule 4 of the Economic of West African States, ECOWAS, Common External Tariff, CET, which prohibits the importation of ‘’Silver or Metal Alloy Coins not being Legal tender in Nigeria makes it mandatory for Customs personnel to intercept it wherever found.
Giving an insider information, the Customs anti-smuggler Czar, who had distinguished himself over the years, that he had been decorated with four different Awards at the November 9,2024, Comptroller General of Customs Award Night at Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, had said that the wants ‘’to leave a Legacy’’ at Seme Command.
Giving a breakdown of the Contraband seizures made by the made by the Command within the seond month as the Area Controller of Seme Command, overseeing the Seme/Krake Land border station , described as the busiest in the West and Central African subregions, he noted that through its routine stop and search operations on March 28, 2025, had intercepted a motorcyclist suspected of carrying uncustoms goods along the Owode -Gbaji Road.
The motor-cyclist may have known that the game up as he did not give room to the officers to interrogate him. He was said to have abandoned the Ghana -Must- Go Bag and escaped to avoid arrest and detention that my result in his prosecution in a Court of Law.
On examination, the bag was found to contain various foreign coins which includes 49 pieces of the North American country of the United States Coins and 1,048, of one-Pound Coins, 130 pieces of 25 Canadian cents, 236 pieces of fifty Pence, 645 pieces of twenty pence, 420 pieces of ten pence and 420 pieces of ten pence and 370 pieces of five Pence.
The Anambra state born Seme Command Area Controller who is desperate to make Contraband seizures, going by the support from Adeniyi, the Customs Comptroller General, who had provided the Command with all the necessary logistics support may have given Nigerian a cause to worry about the increase in the smuggling of Foreign coins into the country when he disclosed that on April 1st, 2025, the Command , Patrol Team operatives had intercepted a Mazda vehicle suspected of conveying smuggled goods along the Badagry Seme Expressway.
The vehicle which was said to have been subjected critical check and found to be carrying 940 pieces one British Pound Sterling coins, 80 pieces of two Pound coins, 388 pieces of Fifty Penny, 540 pieces of twenty Peny and 785 pieces of Five Penny.
Going the Customs Management Act, APRIL, 2023, signed into Law, by former President Muhammadu Buhari, Foreign Coins, are classified under Scheduled 4 of Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Common External Tariff, CET, which was said ‘’to have prohibited the importation of Silver or Metal Alloy Coins being legal tender in Nigeria’’.
The Command was said to have also intercepted and seized Corrosive Mercury canisters, which was a warning to the smugglers that it is no longer business as usual.
The Seme Customs Command helmsman had said that that the officers had acted on intelligence on May 9, 2025, to intercepted the red Toyota Avensis with Reg. No. GGE 167 JN, along -Badagry- Lagos Expressway.
The suspected vehicle was found to be conveying six canisters of corrosive mercury described as improvised explosives that was said to have been concealed beneath five cartons of the Holy Qur’an. The good news was that one suspect had been arrested in connection with the seized improvised explosives and currently in Customs custody at Seme border as the relevant security agencies embark on discreet investigative action and possible prosecution of the suspect.
The major worry of the Seme Command Area Controller was that if the canister of explosives had fallen into the waiting hands of the Islamic Fundamentalst Group, BokoHaram, the Islamic State State Of West African Province, ISWAP, operating in the north eastern states of Borno, Yobe or the Bandits Group, Lakarawa, operating in the nor western states of Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kaduna , Katsina, and Mahurda, in the north central states Kwara, Benu and Plateau and the would become worse..
While the Duty Paid Value, DPV, of all the intercepted and seized Contraband items by the Seme Command, according to Valuation experts was N669,785,263.00, the total value of the seized foreign coins going by the Current exchange rate of N1,600.00 to the US, dollar, was worth about N8, 975,281.00.
Enough of the Seme Command anti-smuggling Operations. Turn to its revenue generation, described as impressive by stakeholders. With its trade facilitation drive, and blockage of areas of revenue Leakage, the Command, Compt. Oramalugo, had said through commitment and Professionalism had collected and paid into the Federation account a total sum of N847,058,897.30.
An elate Compt. Oramalugo, who is optimistic of hitting the billion-naira revenue mark had said the N847,058,897.30, that been paid into the Federation account by the Command between January and May 13, 2025, reflects the Command sustained efforts at ensuring that ‘’ all areas of revenue Leakages are blocked and every Kobo due to the FG, is collected without compromise’’.
In the area of exports, he had said that the Command had facilitated the movement of 2,029 trucks, equivalent to over 88,036 metric tonnes of Made in Nigeria goods to other countries in the West and Central African subregions. These exports the Customs Chief had said had a Free On Board, FOB, value of N16,900,987,331.10, while National Export Supervision Scheme, NESS, stood N84,504,936.66. Compt.
In spite of efforts by Compt. To deliver on his mandate, there are those, both inter and external, who still do not want him to succeed as they were said to have resorted to blackmail. Only recently the mischief makers had cooked up an allegation claiming that the Command intercepted and seized bags of 50 Kg parboiled rice.
The mischief makers who are out to sabotage Compt. Oeamulugo’s efforts had that the Customs Comptroller the distributed the bags of foreign rice, without the knowledge of the purported owner, who was said to have allegedly invoked traditional powers leading to the death of some individuals, including a soldier at Badagry. Describing ‘’the allegation as false’’, Isah Suleiman, a Chief Superintendent of Customs and the Command spokesperson had stated categorically ‘’the narrative is misleading and does not reflect the reality of the matter’’.
He had sounded it loud and clear that ‘’the Command has always adhered to the NCS, standard Operating Procedures, SOPs, for disposing intercepted and seized items condemned by the Court which is guided by transparency, due process and strict adherence to extant laws and guidelines’’.
For those who thinks that by coming up with such allegations would weaken Compt. Oramalugo and his officers from carrying out their anti-smuggling operations to ensure that prohibited items do not enter or leave the country would be disappointed.
