Customs resorts to use of wooden boats to convey seized goods - lament dearth of modern crafts

Tayo Oladipupo

The Western Marine Command (WMC) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) now resorts to hiring wooden boats to convey seized items from outstations to the command headquarter in Ibafon, Coconut area of Lagos.

The Service has denied any such development expressing shock at the source of the story.

Recall that most of the crafts meant for the purpose of patrolling the water and to convey seized items have been grounded and the Service is yet to do anything about the situation in the past three years despite several media reports.

Worse still, the command has suffered neglect since the appointment of Col.Hameed Ali (Rtd) as the Comptroller General of Customs in the area of infrastructure.

According to sources, there are close to 2,000 of 50kg bags of rice awaiting water mode of transportation from Badagry to the Command due to dearth of patrol boats in possession of the officers.

It was gathered that officers and men at any station would source for fund to hire wooden boats to convey the commodities to the command.

Sources disclosed that the seized bags of rice when being conveyed from the various outstations to the command spend close to two days at sea.

Checks further confirmed that officers and men deployed to some of the outstations would have improved on the seizure of contraband but lack of logistics has made the operatives at sea to be handicapped.

Our correspondent gathered that in the process of conveying the seized bags of rice to base, some items were soaked with water which in turn made some of the commodities rot away before the normal expiry date.

Some of the outstations that the seized items are transported to include, Badagry, Idi roko, Seme, Yekeme etc.

Apart from smuggled bags of rice which have littered the command in Lagos, other items like cannabis, kegs of petroleum products, scrap metals, vegetable oil and second hand clothing, face similar challenges of transportation before arriving the command.

According to our findings, personnel of the Customs cannot man the creeks effectively and actively due to limited resources at their disposal.

“The situation has equally affected the morale and psyche of officials deployed to such posts”, a source who preferred anonymity lamented.

Findings further revealed that apart from the challenges faced by the Western Command, situation at the Eastern Command is worse in terms of combing creeks to reduce smuggling to the barest minimum.

Currently, the eastern marine command has failed to live up to its mandates in terms of combating smuggling activities from Cameroon and some other flashpoints where smuggling activities take place.

Further investigations revealed that the Nigerian Navy had handed close to 1,000 bags of rice to the Eastern Command of Customs which in normal circumstances should be the responsibilities of the former.

But speaking with our correspondent, the Public Relations Officer of the command, Emmanuel Tangua denied knowledge of any such development where operatives of the command hired wooden boats to convey seized items to the base.

He however promised to find out from the officers at the outstations in Badagry and Idiroko the means of conveyance to the base.

Tangua maintained that he was not aware of any 2000 bags of rice in Badagry that had not been moved to the base even as he expressed shock at the source of the story.