It was reported, a few days ago, in almost all national dailies, that the Nigeria Customs Service seized 49 boxes containing 661 pump action rifles unlawfully imported into Nigeria.
The rifles were said to have been concealed in a container of steel products and other merchandise. Three suspects were said to have been arrested. According to retired Colonel Hameed Ali, the Comptroller of Customs, the arms were cleared at the port with the assistance of two customs officers who have since been apprehended and are now being investigated.

This is the latest in the series of unlawful importation of arms into Nigeria, and it raises a number of issues. First, who are those behind unlawful importation of arms into Nigeria and what are their intentions?
Unlawful importation of arms: At a press conference, in which Colonel Ali triumphantly reported the arrest of three suspects, he also informed the Nigerian public that a team of customs officers on intelligence patrol had, on Sunday, January 22, 2017, along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway in Lagos, intercepted a truck whICH registration number he gave as BDG 265 XG, purportedly conveying the arms in a container whose number he gave as PONU/825914/3. Such news would have been sweet in the ears but for the fact that nothing was said of the owner of the truck and nothing was said of the owner of the container.
Playing to the gallery
That raises further questions: in whose name was that truck registered and in whose name was the container registered? Are they registered in the same name? Have their owners been investigated? When shall they and their foot soldiers appear in court?


Not to raise these and related questions, and not to address them, will leave us where we have always been, that is, a place where a criminal act is committed but there is neither trial nor conviction nor sanction, a country where criminals are phantoms, a strange land where there are crimes but no criminals. That is why the triumphant account of the Comptroller of Customs comes close to another episode playing to the gallery.
But there is another issue to be raised, and that is, whatever happened to intelligence in this country? Newspapers reported that the Comptroller of Customs informed Nigerians that impounding the truck containing the unlawfully imported arms and the apprehension of three men suspected to be involved in the crime of unlawful importation was the achievement of a “roving team of the NCS’ federal operations unit, while on intelligence patrol”. But on closer scrutiny, this advertisement of prowess is in fact an advertisement of colossal but recurring failure of intelligence. A dictum has it that prevention is better than cure. Intelligence is crime prevention.
Nigeria’s security agencies—the Customs in this case, the Police, the Army, to mentioned but these—have repeatedly demonstrated their ineptitude when it comes to preventing acts that are inimical to security. The Police arrives at the scene of a crime after the crime and after the departure of the perpetrators. The Directorate of State Security neither locates nor arrests makers and users of Improvised Explosive Devices before they strike. The Police and the Army were only deployed to Southern Kaduna after massacre of Nigerian citizens.

Nigerian Customs officers fail to do their work at the ports only to mount roadblocks on highways at spots where stopping your vehicle would constitute a danger to other road users. But the Comptroller of Customs wants Nigerians to believe that what his officers have done is a heroic accomplishment of a “roving team of the NCS’ federal operations unit, while on intelligence patrol”?
In his words, “This feat was no doubt commendable and represents the new normal in the service, where most officers and men are on a daily basis ensuring that illegalities are not allowed unchecked.” For this, he lauded his officers, saying, “I commend the FOU Zone A Comptroller, all officers and men involved in this great seizure.”
Locking the stables after the horses have escaped: The Comptroller General’s assessment should give sleepless nights to discerning minds. For this, in fact, is by accident or design, another of many instance of abysmal failure of intelligence. It is best described as locking the stables after the horses have escaped. Colonel Ali spoke with candour about the obvious when he said, as reported in the dailies, that unlawful importation of arms into Nigeria “is even more unacceptable considering the fragile security situation in some parts of the country.”
But, precisely because of this precarious security situation, the Customs and other security agencies in Nigeria need to act in ways that demonstrate that they are able and willing to secure our beloved Nigeria and its peoples. The high level of insecurity in our land is no longer news. It has led to the death of many innocent Nigerians.

I pray Nigeria gets it right

...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqVp0JPZWug

Nigeria Has Not Gotten To The Point Where People Can Import Arms -- Olusegun Ajano

This country is full of evil leaders especially in military and paramilitary sector.

This post came @ right time & who knows if there were more lorries already out of Port, with similar contents to the one caught since this was only intercepted after port clearance.

If you ask me, na who I go ask?

Shu, that's a big one. U know say there is always a cabal.

Have you been to a typical Nigerian border before? Try visiting one today and you will just go to your house and cry. In a typical Nigerian land border, you can smuggle in 20 elephants without any stress. The legal border post will be here and just about 2 poles into the bush is the illegal border post, operating efficiently at high speed with the full knowledge of the uniformed men at the other side... Don't take my words for it, visit one today. Even the Seme border that draws a lot of attention is as porous as it can get. In the north actually , it is a freeway. . The reason i said that is to let you know that if anybody wants to bring in real dangerous weapons, he doesn't need the seaports that are "relatively" guarded. It is the land borders or the creeks. If such a person chooses the sea ports, then you should know that he is very well connected to a very big custom "oga" who will get the "goods" removed from the port without the consignment going through the normal legal process. That is risky and even if an importer wants to try that, it will not be for fire-arms destined to destroy Nigeria...

Bottomline is that those "pump action" guns are the type the vigilantes, the bakassi boys, the OPC, and co use. Individuals also use that after getting clearance from the police. The irony there is that the police normally provides the permit to the civilians who buy and use them! So what was the importers motive? All those "pump action" rifles used by both ordinary civilians and vigilantes are imported most times by people without the legal permission to do so.., so they smuggle them in by conniving with crooked custom officials. That was what happened in this case. I may be wrong though since i was not there, but like i said in a related thread, i seriously don't think that the guns were for some kind of uprising. I believe it is just a case of a jumpy business that has gone terribly wrong and some folks will now serve time for that. . This line of business has cost a lot of lives because many robbers do buy these guns too. Maybe it is time to hand out real permits to certain individuals to treat in this kind of business, so that its importation and sales can be more rigorously monitored. As you can see, an already existing blanket ban is being circumvented.

Nigeria is not safe.... Those who are to protect us are the one inviting evil for us. We need to pray. A ni Lati gbadura gidi"

owobokiri:
Have you been to a typical Nigerian border before? Try visiting one today and you will just go to your house and cry. In a typical Nigerian land border, you can smuggle in 20 elephants without any stress.

Quite funny bro. Everything you write is of truth.... Nigeria is not safe

G-UNIT!

It's one Igbo boy, assisted by hausa customs officers under the supervision of another Flatheader director of customs


Speculation has it that Wike ordered those guns


But it seems that case is going under carpet for now