By Stephen Ubanna
officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, across the country , particular, the anti-smuggling officers , are working round the clock to win the ear of Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel and Comptroller General , NCS, by arresting smugglers on the wanted list of the Service. The action may have been spurred by a recent article by the Source, that Customs officer turn another way to VIP vehicle smugglers for a price.
From Lagos, Ogun, Kwara, Oyo, Osun, Cross river, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Adamawa, Taraba Borno and Yobe states, the story is the same: Hunt for VIP vehicle smugglers.
Only recently, a well known VIP Vehicle smuggler , one Deinde, who operates in the Idiroko border axis and had been on the wanted list of the Service for years was arrested in his private vehicle in Lagos by a Customs patrol team who had been trailing his movement through informants.
Sources told the Magazine that the popular VIP was not found with smuggled exotic vehicles but was arrested on the road.
Many had thought that it was Comptroller Muhammed Uba Garba led Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, Operations and Lagos Roving team headed by Riks Lura, a Chief Superintendent of Customs, whose men are all over the border areas in the south west geo-political region that made the arrest but it was not. Those who knew him disclosed that he does not go out of his way to arrest suspects for the sake of arresting but it must be with reason.
Eyewitness account described the arrest of the VIP as uncalled for because he was not found with any smuggled vehicle but on a private visit to Lagos. Given a standing order from Dangladima, a Deputy Comptroller, Enforcement and Investigation , to his men to get him and others who had been elusive at all cost because of the number of exotic vehicles which usually found their way into the Lagos market through Idiroko and Seme land border stations daily. It was learnt the alleged VIP had trained many other vehicle smugglers doing the job for him at a price.
insiders told the Magazine that he had remained elusive over the years because there were senior Customs officers both serving and retired who were on his pay roll and giving out information to him. It was therefore not surprising that his arrest had dominated the discussion of officers at the Commands and Customs Headquarters.
The Magazine gathered that he was quickly flown to Customs Headquarters where he was shown to Ali, the Comptroller General as one who had broken all the security measures put in place by Customs to forestall vehicle smuggling in the land border area of Seme and Idiroko axis.
It was gathered that after a brief interrogation at the Customs Headquarters, he was flown back to Lagos at the expense of the Customs Authorities and detained at FOU , Zone A, for about two days. He was said to have been released on bail after fulfilling all the bail conditions.
Despite releasing him on bail , he had continued to report to the Command on a daily basis. He was said to have told those that care to listen that he was not molested in detention. The arrest of the VIP smuggler has sent a signal to other VIP vehicle smugglers that there are no hiding places for them ant longer as they could be arrested anywhere.