Customs Arrests, Detains 28 Officers Over Imported Riffles At Tin Can Port

The Nigeria Customs Service may have identified  some of the officers involved in the plan to clear a container loaded with 1,100 pump action riffles from the Tin Can Port.  
                  
At least 28 officers were reported to have been rounded up and are being questioned to determine their level of involvement in the botched plan to clear the container of arms undetected out of the port.  
                                                   
Although customs authorities refused to confirm the report due to what they termed as national security and fear of jeopardising on-going investigations, our correspondent was reliably informed that the officers and their civilian collaborators will soon appear in court but not until the Service has carried out a detailed and thorough investigation into the matter.                                                   
It was gathered that some of the officers might be left off the hook if the ongoing investigation does not find them culpable as some of them might only be involved in the documentation but not privy to the content of the container.                                          
 
A clearing agent who spoke with Shipping Position Daily under condition of anonymity yesterday however said that most of the newly-posted officers to the command are usually violating constituted customs authority and standard procedures. 
 
"Most of the officers are young officers, I saw one of them yesterday at enforcement, he is a two star officer, but they have removed his ranks and he is cooling off at enforcement"
 
"Many of the newly-posted officers you see at the CPC are too desperate, some of them are children of former Comptrollers, Deputy Comptrollers and Senators", he alleged.
 
 It would be recalled that some operatives of the Intelligence Unit of the Service on routine duty on September 6th 2017 were suspicious of a 20ft container which was not initially listed for examination but had through questionable means been positioned with other containers for the day's examination.                             
 
They also discovered that the seal of the container had been cut and padlocked. 
 
All this made them ordered that the container be transferred immediately to the Enforcement Unit where it was examined and 1,100 pump action riffles found in it.
 
The command on Monday also uncovered a fresh container bearing 475 riffles which was reportedly imported by the same importer of the previous 1,100 guns.