The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has seized 399 fully assembled pump-action rifles and 535 assorted firearm components intercepted at the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos, warning that Nigeria’s ports and borders will not be allowed to become channels for arms trafficking.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, handed the seized weapons to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) in Lagos on Monday, describing the interception as a major security intervention amid Nigeria’s ongoing challenges with terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and violent crime.
“Look carefully at what is laid out on these tables. Three hundred and ninety-nine rifles. Somebody paid for them. Somebody arranged their shipment. Somebody was waiting at this end to collect them,” Adeniyi said.
“And somebody, somewhere in this country, was going to be on the wrong end of them. That is what we have gathered this morning to hand over to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons.”
The consignment, according to the Customs chief, arrived at the Tin Can Island Port on July 8 aboard MV Velika and was flagged by the NCS risk management system for further examination.
The firearms had allegedly been dismantled and concealed in knockdown form, a method Adeniyi said was intended to make the weapons less recognisable during cargo examination.
Following examination and coupling of the components, Customs said it recovered 399 fully assembled rifles and 535 assorted firearm components.
The components included frames, charging handles, trigger groups and locking lugs.
“When we met the press on the 6th of August, we told you the interception had been made, but that the examination and coupling were still going on. That work is now finished, and this is the result,” Adeniyi said.
“Three hundred and ninety-nine fully assembled JOJEF pump-action rifles. Five hundred and thirty-five assorted component parts. Every item counted. Every item documented. Nothing left in doubt.”
The Comptroller-General said the quantity of firearms could have had serious consequences for national security had the shipment reached its intended destination.
“Now consider what that quantity of weapons would have done. Our country is contending with terrorism. With banditry. With kidnapping. With violent crime that has entered too many homes in this country,” he said.
He also linked the seizure to concerns surrounding the country’s approaching electioneering season, warning that hundreds of firearms in the wrong hands could threaten community safety and the democratic process.
“I do not need to describe to this audience what several hundred firearms in the wrong hands would mean for the peace of our communities or for the conduct of our democracy,” Adeniyi said.
“I will say only this: that consignment did not reach its destination, and the officers of this Service are the reason.”
Two suspects arrested
Adeniyi disclosed that two suspects, identified as Robert Eze and Ejeogu Godson, had been arrested in connection with the consignment.
According to him, one of the suspects was arrested on July 31 at a bonded terminal while allegedly attempting to procure the release of the container containing the firearms.
The two suspects, he said, had been remanded by the Federal High Court in Lagos, with their arraignment scheduled for August 25.
The Customs chief urged the media and the public to allow the investigation and judicial process to run its course, particularly regarding the intended destination of the firearms and those behind their importation.
He described the development as more than a seizure, saying it demonstrated a complete enforcement chain involving interception, investigation, arrests, prosecution and the formal transfer of the seized weapons to the national authority responsible for small arms and light weapons.
Technology helped detect shipment
Adeniyi attributed the interception to the deployment of technology and automated risk management under the NCS Trade Modernisation Project.
He said the Service could not physically open every container entering Nigeria and therefore relied on technology to identify cargoes requiring further examination.
“Under the Trade Modernisation Project, we have replaced manual processes with B’Odogwu, which brings clearance, automated risk management, cargo tracking and non-intrusive inspection onto a single platform,” he said.
“The purpose of that investment was never revenue alone. We cannot open every container that enters this country, and no customs administration anywhere in the world can.”
“What technology gives us is the ability to know which container to open. What you are looking at this morning is that capability doing precisely what it was built to do.”
Customs vows tougher action
The Customs boss warned that the Service would intensify efforts to prevent firearms and other security-threatening items from entering Nigeria through ports and borders.
“The CGC vowed that the Service would not allow the ports and borders of this country to be used to bring in arms, or anything else that threatens the safety of Nigerians,” he said.
Adeniyi pledged to strengthen intelligence gathering, risk management and collaboration with other security agencies to detect and disrupt arms-smuggling networks.
“Our officers will stay vigilant. We will sharpen our intelligence. We will strengthen our risk systems. And we will work shoulder to shoulder with our sister agencies to find the people who attempt this and to stop them,” he said.
He also warned Customs personnel against facilitating the movement of prohibited goods.
“The officer who lends himself to this trade, or who uses his position to ease the passage of such goods, will find no shelter with us,” Adeniyi said.
NCCSALW commends Customs
The Director-General of the NCCSALW, DIG Johnson Babatunde Kokumo (Rtd.), described the handover as an important demonstration of inter-agency cooperation and accountability in the fight against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
Kokumo commended the Customs Service for intercepting and properly accounting for the controlled items, saying such cooperation was critical to the Federal Government’s efforts to combat illicit arms trafficking.
He also commended officers and personnel of the Tin Can Island Port Command for their role in detecting the shipment and expressed confidence that continued cooperation between the NCS and NCCSALW would strengthen national efforts to curb the illicit movement of firearms.
The handover brings the seized weapons under the custody of the national authority responsible for small arms and light weapons, while the criminal investigation and court proceedings involving the suspects continue.
