In its renewed fight against smuggling of arms and ammunition into the country in order to abate insecurity, the Nigeria Customs Service has intercepted 31 rifles and a lot of ammunition in the first two weeks of July.
\nThe seizures underscore the premium placed by Acting Comptroller General Wale Adeniyi led management on the security of the nation.
\nBriefing the media on the interception of the arms and ammunition, the Acting Customs Comptroller General disclosed that a joint operation of thorough physical examination of a 40ft container conducted by relevant security agencies at PTML Customs command on July 5th, 2023 exposed the concealment of 10 dangerous arms and various rounds of live ammunition inside plastic drums.
\nCG Adeniyi gave the details of the seizure as three new Pump Action rifles and a new unit of an armed rifle as well as six different makes of pistol. The ammunition were 14 empty magazines and 442 rounds of live ammunition.
\nHe said that the clearing agent, one Mr. Shokunbi Olanrewaju of Shooler Global International Ltd and Mr. Joseph Nwadiolor, who was expected to take the delivery of the container, are currently being detained as suspects in connection with the seizure.
\nSimilarly, the Customs boss revealed that another 40ft container was upon physical examination at Tin Can Island Port Command also discovered to have 18 arms, packets of cartridges and rounds of live ammunition concealed inside plastic drums. This happened during the same period.
\nThe CGC gave the details of the seizure as six different makes of pistols, 12 different makes of rifles, 10 packets of cartridges, two packets of 9mm ammunition, 100 rounds of 9mm Winchester ammunition, one carton of Frontier cartridges and two packets of Buckshot ammunition.
\nHe also hinted of another development, during a routine patrol along Owode\/Ajilete Axis of Ogun State by officers of the Joint Border Patrol Team Sector 2, on July 12, intercepted an unregistered Toyota Camry loaded with six sacks of charcoal, used to conceal three pump action rifles with 174 live cartridges.
\nAccording to CG Adeniyi, the driver of the vehicle, who knew the content he was conveying vis-a-vis the attendant consequences of his action before the law, jumped into the bush and escaped arrest.
\nHe informed that investigation into the seizures is inconclusive, adding that the outcome of investigations together with the seizures will be handed over to the appropriate authorities for further investigation and prosecution.
\nThe Customs boss noted that illicit arms obtained by non-state actors have boosted the proliferation of small arms and ammunition across the country which, he said, accounts for the increase in violent kidnappings, robberies and mass killings in the society.
\nHe stated that the Service has re-strategized its operations, while the officers have raised their levels of professionalism, and have keyed into the mantra of renewed hope aimed at facilitating legitimate trade.
\nHe assured all compliant traders and importers that they have nothing to fear.
\n“We have re-injected new tactics to tackle the economic and security menace caused by recalcitrant importers and their agents. The Service’s human resources and logistics are collectively harnessed to combat and prevent economic sabotage,” the CG stressed.
\nHe implored importers and agents to be patriotic by making sincere declarations, and to be properly guided by the import\/export prohibition lists.
\nThe CGC also urged the public to see security as a collective responsibility, adding that the Service will appreciate information of illegal importation and cross border movement of dangerous weapons used to create mayhem in Nigeria.
\nHe asserted that the Service under his leadership will evolve enforcement strategies that will use technology and intelligence to get the desired results.
\nHe promised to review the architecture of Customs security patrol and replace it with a new structure, emphasizing that the Federal Operations Units of the Service across the country will be strengthened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In its renewed fight against smuggling of arms and ammunition into the country in order to abate insecurity, the Nigeria Customs Service has intercepted 31 rifles and a lot of ammunition in the first two weeks of July. The seizures underscore the premium placed by Acting Comptroller General Wale Adeniyi led management on the security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2807,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2805\/revisions\/2807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}