“To Fight Smuggling, You Have To Put Your Life On The Line And I Am Prepared To Do That”

IDIROKO KILLING: “What Was He Doing At That Particular Time And Why Was He There Pleading For The Smugglers If He Was Not The Owner Of The Goods?”

Mr Victor Dimka was recently appointed as the acting comptroller in charge of the strategic anti-smuggling arm of the Nigeria Customs Service in Zone ‘A’; the Federal Operation Unit. The zone’s area of coverage spreads as far as most part of the entire South West. In this interview, Dimka talks about the challenges of combating smuggling. He also sheds light on the recent killing of a chieftain of the National Association of Government Approved freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) along the notorious Idiroko border in Ogun state.

How is year 2011 so far?
We started the year 2011 on a very sound footing because with the records that we have before us, we will say that January 2011 is far better than January 2010. In 2010, we recorded 144 seizures as against 260 seizures for the month of January 2011, with this I believe you will agree with me that there is a remarkable improvement in the number of seizures made. Out of the 260 seizures, we had 133 general goods, while 127 vehicles were also involved. The total value of the seizures was N342, 628,141, duty payable on these seizures stood at N72, 813,905 with duty paid value of N415, 442, 46. This is the summary of our activities, including 48 suspects arrested alongside the seizures made, there were actually 49 suspects, but one has been convicted, we had one conviction in January 2011, almost all of them have been charged to court and we are awaiting the outcome of the court process.

What about last year?
Yes, thank you. The total seizure for 2010 is 1,197; with duty paid value of N962, 644,742, we also arrested a total of 61 suspects and secured conviction of six. Before now, when we discovered that duties were not adequately paid, we used reappraise the value here and ask them to go and pay, now we have been directed not to do this again, anytime we find out that duties are low, we will send it to the releasing officers at the port and they will appraise such values before we now release such consignment from our custody. In January 2011, we had N33, 21, 39,000, so you can see where these shortfalls keep coming and we make sure we block the revenue leakages and adjust them appropriately to ensure that duties are fully paid. In 2010, the command recorded a total number of 2,612 seizures, but the last quarter of that year (which is very important) recorded 1,197 seizures and that was when I came on board as the then -deputy comptroller in charge of enforcement and now, I am the acting comptroller of FOU, Zone A.

What will you attribute the obvious successes that are being recorded by the command to?
The success of this command is based on the fact that the CGC has motivated us a lot; in terms of logistics, we have been given more than 40 Hilux patrol jeeps to comb all the nooks and crannies of the zone, he approved a list of 100 able men to come and beef- up the activities of the command. With this and with my experience with the zone, it becomes very easy to get results and the results are what everyone one is seeing today. We want to thank the CGC because without him, we would not have achieved this much, and we must not forget too that since he came on board, there have been a lot of capacity building programmes , officers from all over the country and every Customs formations are being picked to go for courses both home and abroad. I am a beneficiary, because I went for one and with this knowledge impacted in us, we have been able to do same to our officers on the field and that is why we are getting these results.

What challenges are you facing in the course of carrying out your assignment?
We have been having a lot of challenges; especially when villagers mobilize themselves to fight us, simply because we have seized goods within their domains, most times the pressure is so much that you will find it difficult to go out of that enclave. The number, at times is as much as 200 to 300 people; sometimes we are surrounded by almost 1000 angry people; with maybe, only 10 officers to cope with such an attack , but because we are trained and because it also a policy that you must not kill, you can only maim in terms of very serious crisis where your lives are in danger, we are constrained and for that reason, most of our officers have put their lives on the line. We have a reasonable number of officers that have lost their lives through that process; we have some that carry permanent disabilities because they didn’t want to kill. There is a high level of provocation when trying to perform our legitimate duties, as I speak to you today, we have four officers lying critically ill in the hospital outside Lagos; undergoing intensive medical care because they were shot by unknown people when they made seizures and were making efforts to get to the main road and get towing vehicles that would tow such a vehicle to the station. I have their pictures and you can interview them from their sick bed right from here, I will put the phone on speaker, you can ask them any question that you wish, because they are in a better position to say it as it happened. You will find out that there is no clear demarcation in places like Imeko, Ilara and Ijoun where half of the buildings are in Benin Republic and half in Nigeria, they inter-marry and at times when you are on patrol, if you are not careful you find yourself in Benin Republic and only the natives can tell you that you are already crossing the borders. So we face such challenges day- in-day- out. And at times, you see the Gendarmes coming in; in batches of two and three. It has not been easy. There are other smaller villages along the border there that you might not know about, but because of the experience and I stayed there for five years, so I know them very well. The hostilities of the natives within the border axis are tremendous. We have talked to them severally about the dangers of smuggling to the society at large and to Nigeria in particular, we have talked to them on how Nigerian government will not be able to do much if they don’t stop smuggling, but they are unrelenting. We have tried to attack their conscience and sensitize people to tell them that smuggling is injurious to the society. Nigeria Custom Service can not fight smuggling alone, it is the duty of all Nigerians including the media to help the Customs and Nigeria to fight smuggling because these smugglers are Nigerians, they eat the same food and have the same blood and speak the same languages that we speak. If we know them, is it not civic enough for Nigerians to get to Custom and give them information on combating the excess of smuggling, it should not be left to customs alone, join hands with us and together we will fight smuggling to make Nigeria a better place.

There is this allegation that your men gunned down one NAGAFF executive at Idiroko border, I don’t know how true it is, but the question is; was it Customs that killed fellow?
It is left to people to distort facts, because while you were getting that information, I that is supposed to be concerned to take pro-active action was not contacted. Instead, I got this information from other people and since a name was mentioned, I contacted the person and I asked him: Are saying that you sent this report to people (the journalist) that Customs killed that man, how did you get your facts, what guns were used in killing the person you referred to as your member? How can somebody kill somebody when the same person is carrying bullet wounds and lying critically ill in the hospital? I have the fact. From the report that we got, there were three vehicles that they got information about, they left from their patrol base towards Ifo in Ogun state; while they were there, they got very close to the smuggled vehicles. There were three buses involved carrying contraband and when they moved to trap the vehicles, two of them sped-off, and the third one was being towed by a lorry. Because they were coming in from the bush, they were left with the option of either carrying the loaded vehicle and the contraband items that were loaded in the bus or to take the one that concerned them more; which is the bus that was conveying the smuggled goods. It was when they were deciding on what to do and making contacts to see if they could get towing vehicle that the deceased now moved in and started pleading with my men. From nowhere, shots were fired at my men from the back; they tried to look at where the shot were coming from. My men and the deceased have the same type of pallets in them. So, we don’t know whether he invited them because the question is this; what was he doing at that particular time and why was he there pleading for the smugglers if he was not the owner of the goods? We don’t want to talk too much because the case is still under investigation. But the people who said that Customs killed that person don’t know what they are saying. By the time we get the autopsy report and ballistic report, we will take the next line of action. We are stopping at nothing to see how this thing came about. We want to know who made such a statement and how he came about such, he will tell the police. Since he was there to see customs aiming at his member and shooting him, he will say what he knows. These things are very simple, you don’t make allegation that you can’t defend. Whatever and wherever your source of information is, tell him that we said it is false. But we’ll get to it and the public will know who did it and how it happened. Don’t forget that you can’t sit or work in Federal Operation Unit and you’ll not have to grapple with sustained blackmail, this blackmail will always come up and they want to sustain it because you’re dealing with the means of livelihood of criminals. I don’t want to talk much because the police is already investigating it, if you go you’ll find out from the police. In the text message, they said there were no exhibits, if you come I’ll show you the exhibits; the vehicles are there with their tyres shot by these same people; I mean the tyres of the official vehicle that my officers drove in, you’ll see these things. We are so annoyed because in the past they’ve done this and they have got away with it, but I that is sitting here, I am fearless, if there is anything I don’t mind it is death and I don’t even think about it at all. So we should know that to fight smuggling, you have to put your life on the line and I am prepared to do that. Anybody who is saying something which he is not prepared to stand by will have me to contend with, so it’s about time blackmailers knew that we are not going to handle blackmail with kid’s gloves and that is why we urge you to always look at these reports you get objectively. We will not say that we did not do it if we did; mistakes could come because we handle weapons, there are weapons that out of intense pressure your hand is on the trigger or the person you are struggling with who wants to seize your arms mistakenly puts his hands on the trigger. Most of these people are not trained, and again this recent one happened in total darkness; at about 2.30am, but the shooting was just for about 10 minutes. So, you will know that somebody somewhere must have mobilized the people, and as God will have it you can see the results.

What are you doing about the allegation that the Automobile market at Berger in Apapa, in Lagos is filled with smuggled vehicles? What is your command doing to protect the unsuspecting buyer?
If you know that passing through this route is very dangerous, why do Nigerians continue to pass through that route? You have known that Berger is a place where these things are done, it is a market that you can not just go into just like that, yet you are not cautious, you continue to go and buy, and then who is to blame? You know that in this market, they sell human parts, somebody has gone to his house to cook and saw a man’s finger, yet you went there to buy meat and say: why can’t the police go there and close the market, but you have been warned not to go there. We have the SERVICOM unit that will always tell people that if you want to know genuine documents of Customs; come and we will show you what forms are for genuine importation. Except you continue to line up put Customs officers along the borders, even at that the person that is a thief will still calculate when you must have done so much and maybe you are now trying to rest a bit, that is when he will come. Vehicles are not something that you just stretch your hand and catch, smugglers work their brains round-the-clock to beat the customs. I am sure you that you are aware of the fact that some of these people go up to Benin Republic to put plate numbers and drive in to say that they have registered the car a long time, so what do you do?

Is it illegal for a man resident in Benin Republic to register a vehicle and drive to Nigeria?
No, it is not, we have ECOWAS documents to cover that, but there are rules guiding all these things, some people will hide under the guise of having ECOWAS documents only to come back here and sell the vehicle.

Is there no way you can warn people against Berger Market?
You will agree with me that it is not everybody in Berger that has questionable character, and we are talking about vehicles that are in thousands. If you buy a vehicle and you say this vehicle is brought from Berger, and you are arrested and put in detention, you have the right when you must have been granted bail to look for the person that sold the car to you because the person has an address. You will report to the police to bring such a person to us, we don’t know the person, so you bring him to us because you are already under detention, if you don’t bring him and we eventually charge you to court, you will go in for it, it’s just like finding a stolen property and you are asked to show them the person that sold it to you, the police will take you there. We have been able to seal- up so many car shops as a result of findings, but when they are asked to take us there, you will find out that the people that are into the business always give fake addresses, even the person arrested will not even want to take you there , so what do you do?

But Customs have the powers to go and raid this Berger Market?
I will not say that everybody in Berger is guilty of this until somebody comes to say I bought this car from Berger and he is going to show us the person that sold it to him, then we will move in on them. The danger in dealing with smugglers is that they will want to eliminate you and you must have this at the back of your mind, so nobody is courageous enough to disclose where they bought the car, you might claim you bought it from Berger, but can you show us the place? We are trying to forget the fact that we have lots of Nigerians abroad and the easiest way to empower their brothers and sisters here is to send in these cars, most of them will send money for duties to be paid, but they won’t pay. I know the population of Nigerians; particularly in Lagos and everybody wants to use a car, you might have about 20 cars and maybe three or four have not paid duty, so do you go into such a place without information. Where it has to do with thousands of people you have to be very careful, so instead of going to open fire and knowing the reaction it is going to generate, because we are armed and these people are the defenceless, but yet they will prefer to die.

There have been a noticeable reduction in the manner and rate at which your men stop containers on the highway these days, why?
When I came on board, we discovered a lot of things wrong, the former Comptroller had a very fantastic structure in place, all I did when I came in was to look at these structures and see where there are so many complaints and I began to work on them. The drop is as a result of changing officers that are becoming too familiar, so what we did was to identify points where they wait, when we discovered that the moment some of these people are able to come out of the port after using all their nefarious connections, they don’t go too far, they just stop the container, remove the vehicle and the moment the information gets to me, I say go and pick, so that you will not say that we are not treating your information because somebody that was given the information has done his best. So, once we get the information, you will not know who and who is to go and pick, we just send them out immediately and that has been paying off. You will see that we don’t pick containers just by stopping and checking, we pick containers now base on information received from our informants, so you can’t see officers now stopping containers and checking, they don’t check, anything that is picked must come to this place, you can never see any officer opening a container on the road today and checking it, it must get to this place no matter how flimsy the information is. In Customs, you are asked to treat every information with high degree of seriousness, if somebody comes and says a container is carrying arms, he wants money but we will not give him money, but when we go and find out that the container is carrying other contraband, we still pay him his money. The information that they are carrying arms is just to ginger you, some of them will continue to tell you lie just to divert your officers from where the actual things are coming out, we ensure that we deal with such misinformation ruthlessly.