By Stephen Ubanna

Barely one week after the  Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, team, led by Aminu Dahiru, an Assistant Comptroller General, ACG, in-charge of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Zone A, Lagos,  which went to Shenzhi Cust  port, Peoples Republic of China, to interact with their Customs Counterparts about their operations and how they are able  to process documents that could lead to the shipment of over 80, 000 Containers of Industrialised goods  going to different parts of the  world daily  returned  to the country, Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel and the Customs Comptroller General, appears prepared  to be take the Service to  another level.

This time, Ali was said to have thrown the door open for officers to get involved in the social media platform.  The Comptroller General may have been convinced about the changes that have been brought about into the Shenzhi Customs operations in China  that could  speed up officers work in attending to  exporters to facilitate the shipment of their cargoes  from the port without hitch based on  the brief  from the team leader that he  felt the need to revolutionise Customs operations for officers to join Customs Administrations  in other parts of the world in the use of the social media platform for their work.

As a prelude to embarking on the Social Media Sensitisation Campaigns  for officers, across Customs Formations nation-wide,  Ali was said to have detailed , Aminu Dangaladima, a Deputy Comptroller General, Enforcement, Inspection and Investigation, E,I&I  to take up the challenge.

The Magazine learnt that the Customs Comptroller General was finally encouraged  to key into the social media platform  to ease Customs  operations in this digital age based on  an alleged proposal that was said to have been forwarded to him by the  Defense Headquarters, as  part of the synergy between the Army and the Customs. The Defense Headquarters  was said to have promised to provide the resource person,  a Colonel, who is an expert in Cyber Crime and Security  and who has been doing the training for the military over the years to handle the programme for the Customs.   It  could  not be ascertained the cost of the project but an  insider disclosed that it runs into millions of naira.

The Customs DCG according to an insider, has been traveling to the Commands over the last three weeks to sensitise the officers  about the programme and the need to pay attention to it. He was said to have enjoined thee  Comptrollers to ensure that proper arrangement were made to receive the resource person.

Last Tuesday, September 25, 2018, the DCG, was said to have been at Apapa Command where he met with Comptroller Barshar Mohammed and his Management team including Abdullahi Kirawa, a Deputy Comptroller  and National Coordinator, Customs Strike Force, as part of efforts  in creating awareness about the launching of the social media platform in the service.

On Friday, September 28, 2018, the Dangaladima team was said to have  been at Seme, a joint border post between Nigeria and Republic of Benin to launch the programme amidst cheers from the officers.  Muhammed Uba Garba, Comptroller ,Seme Command, who was said to be  on the Shnzhi, China trip, was said to have been fully prepared to receive him and his entourage  at the Command. The officers were eager to see the Army Colonel, regarded in security circles as an expert  on Cyber Crime and Security matters . They were enthusiastic to listen to his lectures on the use of the social media platform and get more  exposure. A source told the Magazine that prior to the arrival of the Abuja Customs Headquarters team, officers and men of the Command  were well seated  at the Conference room on the orders of Muhammed, the Customs Comptroller with the High table  well laid.

It was learnt that Adamu  Aliyu Mohammed, a former Comptroller of Seme Command and now Comptroller, Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Lagos, was said to have identified with the programme as he  left his Ikeja  base on Thursday, September 27, 2018, to Seme, on the invitation of the Seme Customs Comptroller . He was said to have left a day in advance because of the traffic  situation along the Lagos Seme  Express way.

The Customs Comptroller, regarded in Customs circles as Comptroller of Comptrollers, because of the number of areas under his close watch in the south west, did not want  to disappoint his counterpart at Seme because of their close relationship and  who had pleaded with him to be there because of the new things that could be learned  about the social media.

Many believe that even without the  Seme Customs  boss invitation to him  to be at the venue  of the launching of the social media sensitistion Campaigns at  the Command , he has no option  but to be there  because of the presence  of Dangaladima, a  Headquarters Staff and leader of the team as well as his immediate boss  . Officers  were said to have given him a rousing ovation when they sited him, an indication that he had a robust working relationship with them and other security agencies operative including the agents  and the Beninioa  Customs personnel at the Land  border when he was  at the helms of affairs at the Command.

Officers who witnessed the flag off of the Social Media  Sensitisation  Campaigns at the Command and listened to the lectures of the Army Colonel on  Cyber Crime and Security matters using the social media platform  beamed  with smiles when they came out from the hall. The Army Colonel may have exposed so much to  the officers about the use of the social media platform to track smugglers and other Criminals at the land border.

They commended  the Customs Comptroller General for liberalising the use of the social media platform in the Service, believed  would considerably do away with paper work in the service as messages would be sent faster to officers without hitch. They urged other Chief Executives of other  government agencies to take a cue  from Ali , the Customs boss, to allow their Staff use the social media platform to complement their work instead of placing an embargo on it.

There is no gain saying the fact that  the social media  were accessible all over the world and each day  millions of people  were said to be on the Facebook, Twittter, Linkedin , Whatsapp and other social media platforms.

Social media  experts believe that it plays some vital role in the lives of workers if given the opportunity  to use it in the workplace.  A study said to have been carried out by the Pew Research centre  in the United States, shows that  the ”social media  plays major role  in the lives of American workers”. As Pew noted in the  survey , some of these influences on the lives of  people,  are explicitly  professional job -related and personal in nature.

A Computer expert who spoke to the Magazine disclosed  that the use of the social media  platform could help the employees take mental break from their job  while at work ,  make or support professional connections,  get information  that helps them solve  problems at work and build  as well as strengthen personal relationships with fellow workers. This is in addition of going to  learn about the people they work with and to ask  work-related questions of other people outside their Organisation.

But a senior Customs officer fears  that by giving  the go ahead order to officers   to key into the social media network, Ali has given the officers and men of the Service,  a bank cheque to interact and know  more about what is happening in Customs including things they were not supposed to know.  The officer  fears that there would be much confusion in the system as some officers would use it  to witch hunt their fellow officers seen as a threat to their position. This is where the senior officers  had  to be careful in taking action on messages unloaded into their phone  daily from fellow officers.

Perhaps, one officer who may have found the importance of the social media  platform to do their work before the sensitisation Campaigns for officers started nation-wide   was  Atta, the Customs  Spokesman.  He was said to have gradually done away with paper works in his press releases  as he could send out hundreds of messages  to Journalists at a go.  Uche Ejesieme, a Deputy Superintendent of Customs and Atta Jerome , an Assistant   Superintendent of Customs both Customs Image makers at Tincan Island Command and FOU, Zone A, respectively, appear to have keyed into the social media  platform  to relate with Journalists covering the maritime beat  and their Colleagues  in the office with ease over the years.

Take , for instance, when the Command is expected to hold its monthly parade, the Magazine learnt that Attah, the Command  Image maker  usually sends out the message  to the officers through the social media platform and it gets to them  without delay.   It is not surprising  why  officers who may not have been coming to the office to know what  is happening  see the monthly parade  as an opportunity to do to hear from Mohammed, the Comptroller about the policy direction of the Service  from the Headquarters.The Magazine gathered  that no Customs Comptroller takes it  with levity any officer who declines to turn up for the monthly parade without any cogent reason which must be  made known to him in advance in writing.

With the approval of the use of the social media  in Customs operations the Customs Comptroller General may have opened a new channel of Communication with  officers and other security operatives at the land border and other Customs Formations nation-wide. It is also an opportunity for  Muhammed, the Command Area Comptroller to have closer working relationship with the officers and other security operatives at the land border including the Department of State Security Service, DSS, personnel  to be able to deal with smugglers decisively in their hideouts and other fraudulent agents and their Customs Collaborators.

The major problem of Seme Command , over the years , had been  under payment on imported goods. Past Comptrollers of the Command had made effort to stop it but no luck because it was  not easy to break into the syndicate. Muhammed  may have given an answer to the problem as he could use the social media platform to checkmate the officers and agents at the land border through regular contacts. The Command may have  to take a cue about the importance of the social media platform operations to to what happened at FOU, ZOne A , recently, where the Comptroller was alerted about the fraud that was about to be committed at the Warehouse by some officers over the burial of some seized cartons of poultry products. It is obvious that without the social media platform , the Comptroller may not have known about the deal.

By Stephen Ubanna

When  Abdullahi  Kirawa, a Deputy Comptroller   was appointed the National Coordinator of the Customs Strike Force, CSF, nobody  gave him opportunity to succeed in discharging  his duties  of controlling the activities of fraudulent importers with their agents and smugglers at the seaports , Airport and land border Areas.

This is  because the Federal operations Unit,  officers, across the country have  fully established themselves on their areas of jurisdictions that many believe  it would be difficult  for another  Customs ad-hoc team to break in.

Take the situation in the south west geo-political region where Muhammed Uba Garba, the then FOU,  Zone A Comptroller, now, Comptroller, Seme Command, , had split  the Command Operations and Lagos Roving team into three different Units :  Operations  and Lagos  Roving Team, Rapid Response Squad and Crack Squad, heade  with different team leaders  traversing the nooks and cranies of the  region and the Oshidi-Apapa Expressway leading to the seaports intercepting Containers, vehicles and items.

Indeed, with the FOU teams on ground, particular in the south west geo-political region,  many believed that the Kirawa led Strike Force team would not make any impact in the region. Unknown to them, Kirawa, knows his onions and how to go about the national assignment.

It would be recalled  that as a one time member of the FOU, Zone A, Lagos Roving team, he  had led a patrol team along the Lagos-Badagry Express who made a ship-load of smuggled  foreign parboiled rice into the country through the Republic of Benin.  The parboiled rice seizure was said to have been transferred to the Command warehouse  in 12 trucks load. Abdullahi Dikko, the then Comptroller General was  impressed with his efforts  that he elevated him to the enviable rank of an Assistant Comptroller.  The tracking of the ship load of rice by the Kirawa  led patrol team  may have exposed him to the Management  as an officer who could be used for special national assignments  by past and present Comptroller  General, Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel. The fallout was that when the  Comptroller General Task Force was first set up, he was asked to head the team at FOU, Zone A.

Insiders told the Magazine since he took over the leadership  of the Strike Force, from the former National Cordinator, the story is  no longer the same for importers with their agents and  their Customs Collaborators  at the seaports and Bonded  Warehouse terminal  operators  and Customs officials deployed to oversee the clearing of goods  at the terminals. This is because  the Strike Force team , with the support of the Customs Ruling Centre  and Informants have been getting useful information to track down Containers fraudulently released at the port.

The Magazine learnt that there have been cases  where Containers released at the seaport  have been stopped from leaving the port   over alleged false declaration and under-payment . It was gathered that some of the queried    Containers  which had been re-routed to the Customs Training School, the Operational base of the Strike Force, Zone A, for examination   had been found  to contain items that were  different from what was declared by the importer in the bill of lading from the country of supplies, mostly in the Asian countries of China and India.

Sources told the Magazine that the  Bonded  warehouse operators around the trade Fair Complex in Lagos and their Customers  to be the worst hit by the Strike Force effort to sanitise  the clearing process  at the seaports,  particular , the Chinese and the Lebanese businessmen who own warehouses in the Complex  filled with  mostly cleared Contrabands sold to  traders in.

A source disclosed that the Strike Force personnel  have at different times raided the Complex, forcing the traders to always find  their way to the Strike Force office at Warehouse road, Apapa, to plead  with the officers to participate in the  examination of their Containers at the seaports or bonded terminals to avoid into trouble with their officers on the road.

Given that the Strike Force personnel may want to see themselves as above  the Law and rcompromise their position,  Kirawa, who has the mandate of  Ali, the Comptroller General to sanitise the seaports and go after the smugglers in their hideouts across the country,  shuttles between the operational base of  the team at Apapa and the Zonal offices to checkmate the officers to ensure they do the right thing.  He was said to have made it clear to officers that anyone found compromising his position would be dealt with desively.

The  Magazine was also informed that  he also calls at the Customs Headquarters at regular intervals for briefing  with the Management .  There is no gain saying the fact that the Kirawa led Strike Force  are actually complimenting  the efforts  of the FOUs across the country.The team was said  to have intercepted  49 vehicles and other Contraband goods with a Duty Paid Value , DPV, of about N127 million between August3, 2018 and September 20, 2018  in FOU ,Zone B, Kaduna, area of Jurisdiction  which covers the seven states of the north west: Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara. The  seizures include 13,983 ”50” bags of foreign parboiled rice, 3,983 ”25” Jerry Cans of Vegetable Oil,, 456 bales of second hand Clothing,, 70 bags  of sugar and  50 cartons of spaghetti among others.

The Strike boss also  disclosed recently  that the team made a seizure of  foreign parboiled rice, second hand second hand clothing worth over N20 million in Katsina ,  President Muhammadu Buhari  home state.  He   confirmed that the seized items had been deposited  at the nearest Customs formation’s warehouse for safekeeping. It was not surprising why this  the items were deposited at FOU, Zone  B, Kaduna , warehouse for proper accountability.

Last August the team  was said to have made an inroad into Kogi state where it seized about  4,200 ”50”  bags  of smuggled   foreign parboiled rice  at Mopa village in the state. A elated Kirawa  had said that seizure  was as a result of the synergy between  the Nigeria Police, Army, Department of State Security Services, DSS, and the Customs Intelligence Unit, CIU, personnel. This is in addition to the 1,246 ”50”  bags  seized along the Creeks in Ogun state. The Ogun seizures, he said was as a result of intelligence gathering from informants.

Kirawa, who could not hide his feelings said, the team would do everything within its powers to ”suppress smuggling of rice, secondhand clothing and vehicles through the land border or the Creeks. He maintained that as long as the Federal government policies banning the importation of foreign parboiled rice and vehicles through the land border remain in force, those who derive joy in testing the will  of the team to engage  in the smuggling activities o  would ever live to regret it. as his officers would go after them in their hide outs dispossess them of the items.

A senior Customs officer who spoke to the Magazine on disclosed that the Strike Force seizures of Contraband g items in the north had been made worse since the commissioning of some Dry Dock terminals in the region.  This is because the Consignment s were never examined  at the ports of discharge before being loaded into Rail Coaches  for transfer  by rail to the Dry Dock Terminal in Kaduna and Jos, plateau state.

The activities of Kirawa led Strike team may have forced Aliyu  Adamu Mohammed , Comptroller , FOU, Zone and  his counterparts  at other FOUs across the country and their patrol team officers to sit up and do the right thing. The spectacular seizures that had continued to be made by the Command Operations and Lagos Roving headed by Riks Lura, a Chief  Superintendent of Customs  speaks volume.