The Federal Government has said it would seek the collaboration of the government of Turkey to unravel those behind the serial importation of arms into the country from Turkey.
Speaking on Monday at Tin Can port while briefing journalists on the seizure of 1100 rifles at the port, the Comptroller General of Customs; Col Hameed Ali hinted that Nigeria will also take advantage of existing laws to ensure that any vessel that convey dangerous cargoes into Nigeria would be detained and banned from calling further at the ports.
The customs boss assured that the service through the instrumentality of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and collaborations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would at governmental levels engage the Turkish government to fish out the syndicate importing the arms.
Recall that the first batch of 661 riffles which were intercepted at Mile 2 while enroute from the Port, they were concealed with steel doors. The second batch of 440 pieces was concealed with POP materials.
Ali said that the seizures have shown the existence of a gun running syndicate with a chain of connections between the importers, customs officers and clearing agents in Nigeria. He said that the recent reshuffling of customs officers across various command by his administration is also responsible for the series of arms seizures.
According to him, investigations are ongoing to uncover the syndicate and any customs officer found complicit would be paraded openly and tried
"Through the WCO (World Customs Organisation) which is a common platform for all of us as customs, and through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have to begin to discuss with the Turkish government, because this is becoming too much for us to bear, we discovered after complete profiling that the importation all came from Turkey, I assure you we are going to take up the necessary steps to make sure that we tackle it at governmental level"
"From now on, thanks to the law and we would effect it as it is, all ships that bring in such cargoes would be detained if discovered on our port, if not, we would block them from our system completely, this means they cannot do business with us until they become compliant"
"This time we are going beyond fishing out the importer or our officers that have connived; we would also go after the shipper. It is a global known process that there is no way you can take onboard your ship a container that you don't know the content"
Apart from these, the Customs boss promised to collaborate with the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Barrister Hassan Bello in other to look at existing shipping laws and the various sections that should be applied on shipping lines importing dangerous cargoes into Nigeria”
The Comptroller General said that a customs officer and Terminal Clerk of a port concessionaire have been arrested in connection with the 1,100 pieces of pump action rifles at Tin Can Island Port.
He stated that apart from the arrests, the Customs is holding the terminal operator responsible for the lethal import and query how the container found its way into the examination bay even though it was not positioned or listed for examination.
Shipping Position Daily had reported exclusively on Monday that the container with number GESU2555208, a 20 Foot, was arrested at the premises of Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT) on 6th of September 2017 by officers of Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU). The container was conveyed by a vessel; MV Bella Shuttle.
He said that the all the guns were imported from Turkey. He said that the bill of laden of the container falsely indicates the content to be wash hand basins and water closets, but thorough examination revealed that it contains 600 pieces of Jojef Magnum Black Pump Action Rifles.
Others are; 300 pieces of Jojef Silver Black Pump action rifles, 200 pieces of Jojef magnum plastic single barrels hunting fun pump action rifles.
At the point of examination, the Customs CG said it was observed that the container was not listed for examination and that the seal of the container had already been cut and padlocked. The container became suspicious and had to be immediately transferred to the enforcement unit.
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