How FOU Busted A N150 million Bribe Gets The Nod To Auction Over-age Vehicles And Other Items

By  Stephen Ubanna

More facts have emerged how  the Federal Operations Unit. FOU, Zone A,  Ikeja , officials, busted a N150 million bribe, going by the current exchange rate of N360.00 to a dollar,    to facilitate the release of 40 suspected Containers of 40 ft each, loaded with cartons of tramadol and other brands of Pharmaceutical  products  allegedly  shipped from the Asian country of India  into Nigeria a fortnight ago.

The Magazine  learnt that the importer with his agent may have succeeded in penetrating the ranks of the Customs and other security agencies personnel  at the Apapa port by by giving them some  bundles of $100,000  , equivalent  of   N100 million, going by the current exchange rate of N360.00 to a dollar  to a dollar to facilitate the release of the cargoes at the port.  But the importer’s problem was said to have started when she allegedly  made available  N50 million to bribe FOU, Zone A officials.

The importer’s contact person may have been told to reach out to the officials of the Command Operations and Lagos Roving team if  she wants the Consignments to be delivered at the Importer’s warehouse without being intercepted on the road and transferred  to the Command for examination which may result into seizure and subsequent destruction as allowed by the  Customs and Excise Management Act,CEMA,  cap204.

The importer was said to have made the money available in dollars for the bribe because of the risk of carrying  huge amount  of  naira in a Ghana Must Go bags which may attract Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, officials. The contact person of the importer may have been told to get in touch with Riks Lura , a Chief Superintendent of Customs and Head of the Command Operations and Lagos Roving team to strike the deal. She got it wrong. This is because Riks was a wrong person to meet for such a dirty deals  as he was ready expose the suspects and ensure their arrest, detention  and subsequent prosecution.

He may have smelt a rat when he was contacted with the bribe offer  of the N50 million to soften the ground for the importer to take delivery of the  suspected 40  Containers of Pharmaceutical drugs of 40ft each without being disturbed  by his officers on the road.It was gathered  that Mohammed Aliyu, the Command Comptroller had asked him to play along with them and the Apapa Customs  officials . The alleged N50 million bribe may have given  the FOU officials ammunition to confront their counterpart  at Apapa port to know the identity of  the suspects  for better interaction.

The Apapa Customs personnel may have played into the hand of the FOU , Zone A, no nonsense officials, by giving out the name of the suspects and where to locate them  in Lagos, thus paving the way for their arrest and detention. They were said to have been transferred to Abuja  for detention and further interrogation  because it was a Headquarters  assignment. Insiders  told the Magazine that  the importer had prepared   his travel documments when information filtered out that the deal had leaked but was nabbed  by the vigilant FOU officers  before she could find her way out of the country.

Note  that the Magazine  had reported in one of its editions  about the suspected Containers of Pharmaceutical  drugs mostly tramadol, being shipped into Nigeria through  the premier port,Apapa  and  how dollars in  one hundred thousand bundles each  was provided to bribe Customs officials to facilitate the release of the cargoes.Tthe Magazine  had also reported  how  Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel and  the Customs Comptroller General, gave the nod to  Mohammed, the FOU, Zone A, Comptroller, to  deploy his officers to Apapa port in order to identify the suspected Containers  tracked  by the Customs Ruling Center officials at Abuja which were discharged at APM terminal.

Armed with the information,  Riks was said to have mobilised his officers  between Monday , November 12, 2018 and Friday, November 16,2018, to  take over the  terminal to start their work. They may have kept it a closely guided secret to avoid the information being  leaked out which may give the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA and terminal officials  including the security operatives at the port to resort to plan B of leaking the operation to the importer.The team was said to  have examined  23 Containers out of the suspected 40 Containers,  despite the non challant attitude of the Apapa Customs personnel.

Ali, the Customs Comptroller General may not have wanted to rely soley  on the FOU, Zone  A, report to form his opinion about the pharmaceutical products  imports but  to see things himself  at Apapa  port and the FOU, Zone A premises.

He may have been  convinced about the report of the tramadol and other Pharmaceutical drugs Shipment when he saw the suspected Containers at the port .  ”Seeing is believing ”, he said.

Prior to his arrival at FOU, Zone A, premises at Ikeja,  Mohammed , the Comptroller, was said to have made adequate preparation  to receive him and also gurantee his safety. He may have taken a cue from  the security arrangement at the  Customs Headquarters where sand bags and machinegun  was mounted at the gate to prepare  sand bags  close to the Command gate  , where  a machine gun,  operated by a fierce looking  officer   to provide security for Comptroller General, seen by security experts  as a gradual introduction of military culture into Customs operations . Mohammed may have set up the sand bags where the machine gun was mounted  to show that he cares for the safety of the  Bauchi state born Customs Comptroller  General to win his heart.

Eye witness account disclosed that the  suspects who were detained in Abuja, werr  flown to Lagos on Thursday, November 22, 2018, under tight security and detained , awaiting the arrival of the Customs boss to the Command from Apapa, to make a public show of the tramadols drugs shipment and the bundles of dollars in one hundred thousands each  offered to his men at the seaport and FOU, Zone A, as bribe to facilitate the release of the  suspected 40 Containers  of  40 fteach from the eaport .

The  Comptroller General was  said to have demanded to see one of  thecartons of the alleged drugs when arrived  at  the Command premise. A carton was said  which was said to have been brought down from the detained X 40ft Container and ripped open  for him to see the contents by the officers. He was said to have  taken out one of the packs in the carton as sample but looked  calm , an indication that he was not happy  how Nigerian importers could go to any extent to import  such dangerous  drugs into the country in the guise of  doing business to make profit.    Abubakar  Bashir, Comptroller, Apapa Command, may have made the Customs Comptroller General to believe  that his officers at the APM terminal blew the whistle open  about  the tramadol import and the thousands of dollars bribe scandal  by the importer through the contact person, according to sources to distort the  information.

The tramadol shipment could not have  been much of a headache to the Customs Comptroller General than the rot he saw at the Command Mechanical workshop turned warehouse which was littered with  several  rickety vehicles  and abandoned  Containers which had been there over the years and thus, overgrown by weeds. officers on guard of the warehouse confirmed that the warehouse is a home of snakes of different types. The Comptroller General confirmed the Magazine story of plans by the Service to fast tract the auction of the abandoned seized vehicles and Containers  that litter the warehouse. He was said to  have  directed Mohammed to set up a Committee to facilitate the auctioning of the vehicles and abadoned Containers in the warehouse to the public.

The FOU, Zone A, Customs boss was also said to have been given the mandate to auction the seized foreign parboiled rice , Vegetable Oil , Used Clothing, shoes and bags in the warehouse. It would be recalled  that President Muhammadu Buhari had  directed  Ali, the Customs Comptroller General in 2016 to evacuate the  the seized perishable items to the Internally Displaced Peoples Camps, IDPs, in  Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Edo states. The states, Ali disclosed were requested to bring their trucks to collect their allocations but were still finding it difficult to do so.

Investigation by the Magazine shows that the states may not be willing to provide trucks to evacuate the  items from Customs warehouses across the country  because of Buhari’s directive to the Customs Comptroller General to supply the perishable items to the IDP Camps.

The refusal of the states, where the IDP Camps were located to provide the trucks to evacuate their allocations of foreign parboiled rice and other items in Customs warehouses across the country may have angered  the Customs Comptroller General  to  take up the matter with a higher Authority. Already, he was said to have ordered  the FOU, Zone A, Comptroller  to set up a Committee that would handle  the auction of such perishable  items, particular foreign parboiled rice and vegetable oil to the public including the vehicles found in the warehouse which had been there for years .

He has every reason to auction the perishable items to the public. According to him,”there are many Nigerians who are hungry and who needed the food items to feed in order to stay alive’ than waaiting for the state to provide the trucks to evacuate the items from Customs warehouses”. Ali fears that the  items  may no longer be good for human Consumption if it continues to remain the warehouse and therefore had to be disposed to the public as quickly as possible.

The directive to the FOU, Zone A, Comptroller, may be applicable to the other Customs  Area Comptrollers where there  are much much of such perishable items in their warehouses. Take for instance at Seme Command alone, there are about 17,000 bags of foreign parboiled rice of 50Kg each , that had been seized  in the last two months and kept in the Command warehouse by Muhammed Uba Garba, the Area ,Comptroller, begging for evacuation to creat additional space to keep other bags of seized rice Contrabands.