By Uzor Odigbo, Senior Correspondent
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Tin Can Island Port, Lagos, has made spectacular seizures particularly in the area of illegal importation of fire arms and ammunition as well as drugs.
Within that period, it took in over 2,670 weapons mostly made of pump action riffles and their ammunition while containers of regulated pharmaceutical products were also impounded and handed over to drug law enforcement authorities.
And watchers of the Nigerian maritime industry and the NCS indicate that this development shows that recent changes in the Service and the Command are yielding positive results.
Three of these seizures were made by the Tin Can Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service headed by Comptroller Yusuf Bashar which detected the weapons in three tranches, two of which were discovered within one week.
On September 21, 2017, 470 pump action riffles were found in a 21-foot container which arrived the port on board the MV Arkas Africa, owned by Hull and Blyths Shipping Company. This came barely a week after about 1,100 other pump action riffles made up of 600 pieces of Jojef Magnum Black pump action riffles, 300 pieces of Jojef Magnum Silver pump action riffles and 269 pieces of plastic single barrel hunting riffles were also seized by vigilant men of the same Customs Command.
Both 20-foot containers were owned by the same importers – Great James Oil and Gas Limited which declared them in its bill of lading as wash hand basins, water closets and elbow plumbing plastics.
Industry watchers pointed at what is obviously a step up of enforcement activities and change of strategies of the Nigeria Customs Service, particularly at the Tin Can Island Port Command which is clearly at the pivot of these recent seizures.
Following the first seizure of 1,100 riffles on September 6, 2017 leadership of the command had decided to undertake a comprehensive profiling of importers of the consignment, a critical step which found that another 20-foot container import from the same company was already inside the same terminal awaiting clearance. It was promptly quarantined and later impounded.
In November, the same command had twice recorded spectacular seizures of two consignments of controlled pharmaceutical products falsely declared and handed them over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
These included Spectradol (Tramadol) capsules, Spectra Doxycline, Jinat tablets, Clarinthromycin and Jincold Extra Strength capsules falsely declared as vehicles.
Industry watchers insist that the massive and unprecedented seizures are being made as a result of improvements and changes in the Customs monitoring and enforcement strategies at the port and commended both the Controller in charge of the Command, Comptroller Yusuf Bashar and the head of his Enforcement Unit, Deputy Comptroller Dera Nnadi for their efforts.
