Written by Jacob Segun Olatunji, Abuja, Oladipo Adelowo, Lagos, with Agency reports
Saturday, 30 October 2010

State Security Service (SSS) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) are set on warpath over seizure of large consignments of arms and ammunition illegally imported into the country by yet to be identified persons, with indications showing that heads may roll in Customs over the matter.

Customs had continued to lay claim to the seizure of the  consignments brought into Apapa Port, saying it intercepted the items since last July and was still carrying out investigations on how they came into the country.

However, findings show that the SSS has faulted the submission of Customs while laying claim to the actual seizure of the arms and ammunition, which came in 13 containers.

Sources at SSS, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Saturday Tribune that operatives of the security agency discovered the shock find in the course of investigations and immediately alerted the Federal Government and the entire world.

“Customs cannot in any way lay claim to the discovery of the huge weapons because if it was true that they intercepted them since last July, why did they not alert the appropriate quarters and what investigation have they done on the matter? And who have they arrested so far?” a source told Saturday Tribune.

Saturday Tribune gathered that the Federal Government is not taking the issue lightly as it is said to have resolved not to spare those that may be found to be involved in the alleged criminal importation and their collaborators.

Indications are that a shakeup is imminent in the Nigeria Customs Service with possibility of some top officers losing their jobs and facing prosecution.

The Comptroller General of Customs (CG), Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, warned importers of explosives and their collaborators to beware, declaring that there was no hiding place for them in the country.

The CGC, who inspected the 13 containers laddened with arms and ammunition on Thursday at the AP Muller Terminal, Apapa Port, pinned the discovery to latest equipment being used by the force to detect such illicit cargoes even as he disclosed that investigations into the circumstances surrounding the illegal importation were ongoing.

Dikko visited the place along with some of his principal staff officers from Customs Headquarters, Abuja, at about 3.30 p.m. amid tight security.

He stated that his department was fully ready and fortified to burst importation of illegal cargoes into the country.

“I want to warn those who are into importation of arms and ammunition and their collaborators to stay away from the nation’s ports or the long arm of the law would soon catch up with them. When it does, the full weight of the law shall be brought to bear on such person or groups of persons. There is no untouchable as far as the importation of illegal arms is concern,” he added.

Meanwhile, the illegal arms shipment discovered in Lagos this week was loaded in Iran by an Iranian trader, the firm that operates the vessel that delivered it said on Friday.

“The shipment in question was booked as a ‘shippers owned container’ and supplied loaded and sealed by the shipper, an Iranian trader who does not appear on any ‘forbidden persons’ listing,” said CMA CGM, which operates the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel.

According to Agence France Presse (AFP), CMA CGM, based in France, said the containers were loaded in Bandar Abbas, a southern port city of Iran,  and discharged in Lagos in July.

According to the firm, last week, the shipper asked to have the containers reloaded and sent to the Gambia.

Clearance had been obtained before Nigerian customs intervened and halted the shipment, according to CMA CGM.

Iranian embassy officials in Nigeria refused to comment, saying a statement would be issued later.

An intelligence agency spokeswoman has said authorities were on heightened alert following October 1 twin car bombings in the capital that killed at least 12 people.

Ten of the containers opened so far contain an array of weaponry, customs spokesman, Wale Adeniyi said, despite being declared as building materials.

CMA CGM said it has been cleared of any involvement in the illegal shipment and called itself the “victim of (a) false cargo declaration.”

Two people have reportedly been arrested in connection with the cargo, but security officials have not confirmed the reports.

Authorities have publicly refused to speculate on the origins or destination of the shipment, coming just months before presidential elections, but have heightened port security.

“Certainly security at the ports has been beefed up and we are trying to move up ahead ,  and tighten our own systems to block such shipments,” Adeniyi told AFP.

Regarding paperwork for the shipment that contained the weapons, Adeniyi said “the documents were irregular,  and we felt that the names given on them were false.”

He added that the precise quantities of the weapons will be known after all the containers were opened.

So far, the 10 examined contained “similar contents — mortars, grenades, light ammunition and of course tiles,” said Adeniyi.

The ship’s last port of call before arriving in Nigeria was India’s Jawaharlal Nehru port near Mumbai, the customs service has said. The vessel berthed in the Nigerian port on July 10 and sailed out on July 15.