By Stephen Ubanna
When Mohammed Aliyu, Comptroller Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, got a signal on Tuesday, July 9, 2019, that he was needed at the Customs Headquarters, Abuja, for a meeting with Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel and Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs Service, the next day, he did not hesitate in taking the next available flight. He may have left without
Unknown to him the Customs Comptroller General, has arranged a special meeting with the Comptrollers of the FOU Commands and land Border stations across the country to address the problem of problem of smuggling activities across the country and how to put it under control. The meeting was said to have been attended by Yahaya Usman, a Deputy Comptroller, and Coordinator, Comptroller General Strike Force, CGC, Strike Force, Lagos Zonal Command and his counterparts in Owerri and Kaduna Zonal Commands. Augustine Chidi, a Deputy Comptroller General, overseeing Customs Enforcement, Investigations and Inspections of the Service was also said to be at the closed door meeting.
The meeting between the retired Army Colonel and the Comptrollers of FOU and Land Border Stations across the country including the CGC’s Strike Force Coordinators in the south west, south east/ south-south and the north was coming on the heels of President Muhammadu Buhari, return from the 12th extra-ordinary meeting of the African Union, AU, Meeting on Africa Continental Trade Agreement , AfCFTA, in Niamy, Niger, last Thursday.
Nigeria has joined AfCFTA, as the 53rd member of the African Union economic group while Republic of Benin signed as the 54th member nation. The two West African countries, share Borders in the north and the south west geo-politicl political regions. the Katsina state born Nigerian President had signed a trade pact with Patrick Talon, his Beninoise counterpart but emphaised on the need for fair trade of the manufactured goods or Agricultural products produced within the countrie and not third party exports.
Note that Cotonou port , in Benin has been thrown open to all sorts of imports without any restrictions , including foreign paboiled rice, processed vegetable oil ,vehicles and second hand clothing which are not allowed to come into the country through the land Border.
Based on the trade pact, Nigeria is expected to export cocoa, , cotton, cement , leather, cashew nuts, sesame shea butter, palm oil, ferliser, petrochemicals,a nd rubber among other items. The trade in the non oil exports, between the two countries, according to Segun Awolowo, Executive Director, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, will fetch the country bout $30 billion annually. For now, Beninoise pineapples has taken over the Nigeria market, even without the formal launching of the pact.
The initial fear that Beninioise business Community may take advantage of the trade pact to export third party goods, particular , pharmaceutical products and other manufactured goods from Europe, particular, France, and the Asian countries of China and India, may have forced Buhari to talk things over with Ali, the customs Comptroller General on how to further tighten the security along the nation’s land Borders with the Republic of Benin so that goods not approved on the Economic Community of West African States, Common External Tariff, CET., were not allowed into the country through illegal routes. The Customs Comptroller General may have passed the Presidential message to the Area Comptrollers of the FOUs and Land Border Stations across the country including the Coordinators of the CGC Strike force in the Zones at their recent meeting in Abuja . The Customs Comptrollers and CGC Strike Force Coordinators , may have passed the message to their various patrol teams forcing them to go on rampage to smoke out the smugglers from their hidings.
In spite of the fact that Aliyu , the FOU, Zone A, Customs boss, had not returned to the Command as at last Thursday, Ahmed B.A, a superintendent of Customs, SC, with the support of Riks Lura, a Chief Superintendent of Customs, CSC, and the arrow head of donkey skin, worth over a billion , seized between Ogun and Oyo axis as well as most of the exotic vehicles including a 2019 model of bullet proof valued at about N 90 million, was said to have intercepted ”50” bags of foreign bags o foreignf rice from different locations in Ogun and Oyo axis , which were said to have been loaded into a truck that was hired to transfer it to the Command premises. The team was also said to have also intercepted pharmaceutical drugs which were conveniently loaded into the two trucks, for transfer to the Command premises to be used as a welcome gift to the Comptroller.
The incident report of the seized items, worth millions of naira, were expected to be handed over to Aliyu , the Area Comptroller , next Tuesday, July 17, 2019 , by CSC. Riks, during the Command enlarged management meeting. The meeting , according to sources, affor the patrol team leaders the opportunities to speak out about their challenges and what needed to done to assist them to overcome such challenges in order to make more seizures for the Command.
There are indications that the Strike Force team,, may have made the spectacular seizures from smugglers in the recent time because of the close working relation with Ajao, a Superintendent and Head of the Command Information Patrol team and whose boys were at different locations in the south western tates of Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti, Ondo, Osun and Oyo, monitoring the movement of the smugglers . The grand master of the anti-smuggling operations in the Command, Riks, was said to have always been consulted by the various patrol teams whenever they encountered any difficulty either on the road or in the bush carting away smuggled goods as he had always provided solutions for such seized goods to be successfully transferred to the Command.
A senior Customs officer who spoke to The Value News disclosed that in the last one week, officers and men of the FOU, Zone A, in patrol teams had worked beyond immagination, particular, the Command Operations and Lagos Roving team and members of the Command Strike Force were said to have effectively blocked the Ogun and Oyo axis for the foreign rice and vehicle smugglers.
Given the seriousness of the Command various patrol teams in the anti-smuggling war, t of other security agencies personnel , who had been involved in aiding and abetting smugglers appear to have gone underground to avoid been humiliated by the fierce looking Customs officers on the road.
The meeting at Abuja, may have solved one major problem in the south west, where Yahaya and his cohorts in the CGC Strike Force had seen themselves as Competing with the officers and men of the FOU, Zone A, and undermining the efforts of the land Border station Comptrollers, particular, Muhammed Uba Garba, of Seme Command.
maritime watchers would want Yahaya and his chorts in the CGC, Strike Force, to see themselves as working towards the same goal Aliyu and the Land Border Comptrollers of suppressing smuggling operations and protecting the nation’s economy instead of Competing with them.
Going by the way , Yahaya,, the Lagos Zonal ,Coordinator and his team members, are going about the anti-smuggling operations as in the south west, they may have opened the door for smugglers to penetrate their ranks and cause more havoc on the economy.
This is where Ali, the Customs Comptroller General, may have to call the Lagos Zonal Coordinator of the CGC , Strike Force to order, to force him and his team members to work within the confines of the law establishing it or be removed instead of turning into a weak spot of the Customs anti-smuggling war by resorting to blackmail.
