By Bayo Bernard
Last Friday March 9 was a historic one for Comptroller Mohammed Uba Garba, Controller in charge of Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A. Mohammed sat in his office that day as usual not knowing what fate had in the kitty for him. The big bang for him came later that day when he got a letter of recommendation from his boss in Abuja, Col Hameed Ali( rtd) appreciating giving him a head up for the anti-smuggling effort since he became head of the Unit.
Early that day in his office he had narrated to the magazine his frustration with some powerful people in the country, in his quest to end the evil trade of smugglers who were bent on sabotaging the economy. On his part as the head of the unit Comptroller Mohammed, told the magazine that he alongside his men will not stop their patriotic duty of giving smugglers hell in line with the mandate given to him by Ali, the no-nonsense CGC.
Before the end of that day, however, Comptroller Mohammed had already walked the talk. His men made a big seizure of truck load of imported parboil rice heading to the country from Benin Republic. The rice had entered the country through the notorious Idiroko border, in Ogun state.
In a way the seizure was a respite for the controller who had earlier expressed his frustration in trying to recover nine truck load of Thailand parboiled intercepted by his men recently, but was forcefully taken to custody by some elements in the Nigerian Police Force who also stopped the suspects from being arrested.
According to information gathered by the magazine, the Customs headquarters in Abuja has swung into action with a view to get the nine trucks of foreign parboiled rice handed over to the Unit.
Meanwhile, Controller Mohammed is elated that his men are not discouraged despite the setback with the police. For him Friday, March 9 was a turning point in his career.
