Comptroller Umar Yusuf is the Area Controller in charge of Western Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service. In this exclusive interview with our correspondent; Roland Ekama , he talked about the command’s activities, especially about its two vessels and their present condition. Umar also shed light on some other customs-related issues like operation hawk descend, smuggling activities and sundry others.
Kindly give us an update about the two sea going vessels acquired for the command and why they are yet to be commissioned by CG of Customs?
The vessels were imported into the country about a year ago and a vessel called Plupus collided with one of our own ship called "Group of Nine", which I will say caused a lot of damages on our ship. But we went into agreement with them and they agreed to repair our vessel. As we speak, they have already ordered for the damaged components and Continental Shipyard Limited has agreed to effect the repairs; therefore the spare parts are expected to arrive the country any moment from now and once the spare parts come in, it will just take them a week to fix the vessel and that is why the Comptroller General of Custom has not been able to come and commission the ships. But I can also assure that the moment the repair works are effected, I will only need to contact my CGC to come over within one week after the repair of our beautiful edifices "Group of Nine" and "Customs Pride", which will be deploy to the Eastern Marine Command of Customs.
Is it the accident on "Group of Nine" that caused the setback and affected the ships’ deployment?
Definitely, because there is no point to deploy "MV Customs Pride" to the Eastern Marine Command, while "Group of Nine is still under repair, because the CGC will embark on the flag-off or commissioning of the ships once and for all. Therefore "Customs Pride" cannot commence patrol while the other is under repair in Lagos. When the two ships commence operations, we are going to assist the navy to address issues surrounding pirates, illegal bunkering and pipeline vandalism on our waters.
How are you coping with the peculiar location of your command, considering the volatile nature of the environment where it is located?
I believe that on your way to the command, you might have noticed that there is less human presence under the bridge. This is the measure we have taken to clean up that surrounding. Initially, when coming to the command through the gate you see all manners of people loitering under that bridge. Some of them are vagabonds and they will station themselves in that place and we never knew that there is a hotel under the coconut bridge; in fact a brothel for that matter. We were unable to know all these until when a gas cylinder busted and affected some part of our gate and the fence. As a proactive command we put in place measures to address the issue by inviting Federal Ministry of Works and even the Governor of the State and that is why you have Rapid Respond Squad officials stationed under the bridge and my officers have been able to chase out the miscreants from the Coconut under bridge who are more of illegal occupants. As a result of that we have been collaborating with the Baale of the community and the DPO in charge of the community. We have also directed that any of them that know they are legal occupants should bring their papers before we can allow them stay, but anybody without legal document cannot occupy any space right under the bridge.
How true is it that there has been a reduction in the level of smuggling through the creeks?
Yes there has been a reduction in the level of smuggling in the creeks because of the command's proactive nature. First of all, when I came as controller in charge of this command, I found out that my officers were on G3. I felt those ammunition were obsolete weapons; then I applied and my service granted me the opportunity to train my officers with the use of AK47 and it’s no longer news to me because, I have done it and it’s a success to me. Even when I was the Area Controller in Kaduna, Katsina, I trained more than 800 officers and men in the use of AK47 in support with the Nigerian Army for shooting range and to sharpen their shooting prowess and when I came here I replicated it. As we speak we don't use G3 again, but AK47. We have the arms and ammunition in place and we are ready to face smugglers squarely 24hours a day, seven day a week at sea.
Since the CGC directive banning rice imports through land borders, has the command recorded some level of seizures?
Since the stoppage of rice coming in through the borders as directed by the CGC and management of the service, I am happy to tell you that we have seized over 1000 bags of foreign rice. Since the pronouncement by the CGC, I think we have made three separate seizures: the first one was 411 bags and just today we had 333 bags of foreign rice. The Navy has been tremendous in the area of synergy because the 333bags was the effort of the navy. And combining all the seizures since the pronouncement, I can say we have seized over 1000 bags. We are up and doing and we will continue to do what we are known for.
How successful would you say was operation hawk descend?
I will say ‘operation hawk descend’ was successful and I can say that since the commencement of ‘hawk descend, we have seized over 10,000 cartons of frozen poultry products and the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN); having found this command worthy of commendation, we are the first to be commended by them, even as they confirmed that the prices of foreign poultry products have gone up by almost 50 to 70percent and we know people are forced to patronise our local poultry products and that is what we actually want in this country. We are just making the foreign countries to be richer through importing these chemically made poultry products which is hazardous to our health and we are helping them to build their industries and then killing our own industries here. First of all, the prices have gone up which in turn forces our Nigerian buyers to patronise our own local poultry products. However there is a multiplier effect when we patronise our own products because there will be jobs provision as far we are concerned; the agriculture sector will grow and the products will be cheaper and affordable for Nigerians. In the area of nutrient is it far better than what these people import or smuggled into the country because they are not chemically produced.
How did you dispose of the recent seizures of cannabis recorded by you command?
Each agency of government has its own job to do. Our own is that since cannabis is involved in our seizure, I was directed by the service to hand them over the NDLEA. It is left for the NDLEA to tell you what they do with the dangerous items and how to the dispose them. The customs has no role to play in that regards.
What will be your message to smugglers?
There is no country in world that has been to eradicate smuggling; we can only bring it to the barest minimum. What I am saying is that smuggling has a multiplier effect on the nation, the citizen and the economy. First of all, it cripples industries in any given nation, it renders a nation jobless and it makes us vulnerable to all forms of importation of foreign products. My call to Nigerians is that they should go back to legitimate trade, because there are so many legitimate trades that Nigerians can involve themselves in, which is far better than smuggling. It is better to trade and get one Naira as profit rather than smuggle high profile goods that earn them high profits, but at the end of the day they go back to zero level. Some of the smuggler sell their houses , get loans from banks and from acquaintances just to do illegal business and by the time the chips are down they will go back to square zero.
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