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.
