Customs Warns Smugglers On Zero Tolerance

The Customs Area Con
troller, Ibafon Headquarters of the Western Marine Command, Yusuf Umar, has warned smugglers and criminals to look elsewhere as the Command has zero tolerance to their nefarious activities on the waterways.
Umar gave the warning while briefing journalists on the Command’s Join Patrol team that dislodged some smugglers and criminals in Lagos last Friday.
According to him, the Western Marine Command which controls the waterways of Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Kebbi states in the North-West of Nigeria, with a crop of dedicated personnel had so far recorded different seizures including imported rice, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol, vegetable oil, Automotive Gas Oil, Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), frozen poultry products, fairly used clothing, tins of sweetened condensed milk, bottles of wine, whisky and scrapped metals, with an estimated duty paid value of millions of naira.
He disclosed that on June 12, 2015, the Command seized some bags of rice in the wee-hours of the day after a battle with the smugglers, as some officers also sustained injuries.
The Comptroller said the officers, Senu Suru Mark, Razaq Muhammed Jamiu and Musa Ibrahim Idris during the face-off sustained various degrees of injuries which include head-cut with machete, knife cuts in the hand and leg as they were stabbed  in the back by the smugglers.
Umar further disclosed that the smugglers also used locally made guns and other dangerous weapons, but unfortunately the officers who were recently trained on the use of AK 47, a more sophisticated weapon gave the hoodlums a hot battle.
He noted that officers fought gallantly matching the smugglers with the newly acquired weapons which they have been armed with, and it led to the smugglers fleeing and leaving their weapons behind.
“In all a big boat laden with over two thousand bags of parboiled rice, one long den gun, one short den gun, four knives and one machete were seized from the smugglers. No suspect was apprehended as they jumped into the water with gun shot wounds after abandoning their weapons and the boat loaded with bags of rice”, the Area Controller added.

Nkpemenyie Mcdominic