Barely a week after the Acting Controller General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi, put the command on a red alert against movement of firearms, Operatives of the Ogun Area 1 Command of the Service, over the weekend, intercepted a 20 sacks of ammunition enroute the neighbouring Niger Republic.
The sacks, which contained a total number of 1,245 rounds of live cartridges, was intercepted alongside another 203 bags of foreign parboiled rice, each weighing 50kg at the Ijoun axis of Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Addressing journalists on Monday in Abeokuta, the state capital, Customs’ Controller for the Area 1 Command, Bamidele Makinde, said the contrabands were intercepted at around 0024-hours of Friday, August 12, 2023 by the Roving “B” Team of the Service, which was on a routine patrol of the border.
Makinde disclosed that the smugglers resorted to abandoning the contrabands at a bush path of Tombolo Junction, an exit point between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin after a hot chase by the anti-smuggling operatives of the command.
LEADERSHIP recalls that the Customs’ Controller General Adeniyi had two weeks ago charged the NCS Ogun Area 1 Command, Idiroko Border, to be “extra vigilant” on their duties, stressing that criminals wanting to make supplies to the Niger Republic might want to explore other borders with lesser vigilance to achieve their aims.
Makinde explained that his command had through a credible intelligence got wind of a planned movement of some prohibited items into the country from the Republic of Benin by “some unscrupulous elements”, hence, his command deployed necessary arsenal to counter the plans.
“During examination of the seized vehicles and the items, about 1,245 rounds of 70mm (2¾) ammunition of Lion, Trust, Supreme and Restar branded cartridges were found to have been ingeniously concealed in 29 bags of the seizure. While considering the potential danger of ammunition of such magnitude if successfully smuggled in, we redoubled our efforts to ensure that they do not find their ways into Nigeria,” he stated.
Emphasising that such contrabands constitute serious threats to safety of the border communities and the national security, Makinde, however, reiterated the commitment of the Ogun Area 1 Command under his watch towards ensuring maximum security of Nigeria’s borderline “with all sense of patriotism”.
Disclosing further that the contrabands were loaded in five old vehicles of Toyota Camry brands, he gave the Duty Payable Value (DPV) of the seizures as N18million, stressing that investigation was still ongoing towards unraveling the cartel behind the crime.
