The nefarious acts of many of the country’s uniformed men sometimes make one take the men of the underworld as priests. There have been many cases of excess by these men in uniform that have resulted in the death of many innocent Nigerians. It is on record what they sometimes do to one another; the recent incident between the police and soldiers in the Badagry axis ofLagosis still fresh in our memory and the talk of Badagry brings to mind many atrocities some men of the Uniform commits in their quest to get quick money.

It has come to our notice the activities of one Customs officer who was formerly manning the Gbaji check point along theLagos-BeninRepublicroad somewhere after Badagry inLagosState. The man in question, an assistant comptroller of the Nigerin Customs, has the name U B Yahaya tag on his uniform and he’s said to have formed the habit of seizing goods without taking them to the Customs general warehouse.

He recently seized some goods said to be in the region of N7 million apart from the clearing levy from one, Prince Dapo Adenigbagbe, a Customs Licensed clearing and forwarding agent.

According to Adenigbagbe, it all began on the 1st of March this year when he was returning from Seme in Benin Republic, from where the goods were sent by the agent that freighted it; the goods consisted of 700 pieces of Jeans trousers which were in a bag and 1638 pieces of Polo T-shirt that were in 3 bags.

The agent who said the contents of his bags were dutiable items, claimed that the customs at the first check point searched the goods and after they realised they were not contraband, allowed him to leave, only for Yahaya, who is an Assistant Comptroller of Customs, to stop him few feet away from the check point and ask one of his boys – one Tahiru – to start offloading the bags. After that he put the wears in sacks totalling 14. Yahaya then told him he should pay N50,000 for each sack; the total money demanded from him being N700,000. When he tried to plead with Yahaya, the Customs man declared the goods would be taken to the warehouse in Ikeja. Prince Dapo Adenigbagbe was satisfied as his goods were dutiable goods.

He explained further that his next trip to the place the following morning to confirm when they would be moving his goods to the warehouse, was when he got to realise that a red Ford bus came to move some goods that had been seized by Yahaya before his. They included 150 gallons of vegetable oil, he said. By the time he got there on the fourth day his goods were said to have been moved to the warehouse. He decided to check at the warehouse but was shocked when he was told his goods had not been brought there after he was shown the log book.

He said subsequent effort to get his goods proved futile as the log book showed the goods were never brought to the warehouse. This prompted him to report the case to the police. After that he asked his lawyer to write the Comptroller of the Lagos Federal Unit, and after that the Lagos Comptroller called Yahaya to report to office where Yahaya confirmed seizing his good and that of others which were not reflected in the log book at the warehouse. The comptroller then asked Yahaya to go and sort himself out as he had brought all that on himself.

“I was surprised when after that time the lawyer who had collected money from me to charge the case to court started foot-dragging. This aroused my suspicion that money must have changed hands over the issue as before that, the policemen also revealed to me that Yahaya is a friend to their boss and so they cannot do anything about it. It has been six months since the incident happened and this has forced my clients to start using other agents as they believe I connived with the customs in defrauding them.

“Secondly, though Yahaya has been transferred to Agbara from Gbaji, I’m still afraid for my life to pass through that area because Yahaya used to be a soldier before converting to Customs and he still has his house in Ibereko Baracks where he once suggested we meet before I turned him down as that barracks was where a DPO and DCO were killed sometime ago.

“I was informed that Yahaya is very influential and this was confirmed when nothing was done on the letter I instructed my lawyer to write to the Zone 2. So that has been my dilemma over this issue,” explained Prince Adenigbagbe.

Investigation into the activities of the customs official involved showed that Yahaya is actually a very wealthy property owner. He was discovered to be the proud owner of two Filling Stations close to the border, one house in Festac, one inKano, a hotel inAbuja, two other houses inLagosand some other properties scattered around.

Activities of people like Yahaya have sent many people to their graves as the money used in buying some of the goods seized were through loans. They are also depriving the government of billions which should have been in the government coffers as revenue end up in individual pockets. It is bad that in a country where we are preaching zero tolerance for corruption some corrupt government officials will be treated with kid gloves as people like Yahaya are supposed to be dismissed with all their properties seized rather than being taken from one border post to another.

Categorised as : News by Global News


http://www.globalnewsnig.com/?p=82

This is so sad.

Hausa man again! smh

Relax101:


Activities of people like Yahaya have sent many people to their graves as the money used in buying some of the goods seized were through loans. They are also depriving the government of billions which should have been in the government coffers as revenue end up in individual pockets. It is bad that in a country where we are preaching zero tolerance for corruption some corrupt government officials will be treated with kid gloves as people like Yahaya are supposed to be dismissed with all their properties seized rather than being taken from one border post to another.

I think this is a good summary of the post. I just hope that corruption will not bring this country to a halt faster than imagined.

that is your man.

re: hausa man again.
swine how do you know he is a hausa man. he is a custom man and this criminality is done by all and sundry. when roobery took place you don't say igbo man even though they are 90% perpetrators the majority of igbos are not. pathetic tribalistic pig.

stepo707:

Hausa man again! smh

Can't you guys do without introducing tribal slant into every argument?

pls nairalanders,lets help dis man in trouble to reclaim his goods by any connection we may possess, since everytin in naija is now on connection basis. Pls i am in no way related or even know him, but because i work hard for my money, i can feel his agony right now frm dis story! Smh, How can a man do dis to a fellow man?

How can 700 pieces of jeans(assume mkt price N1k =700,000)+1638(assume anoda 1k=1.6m) of polo shirt come to 7m.
Not making excuses for d customs official,bc we all know,dats d means dey come to acquire dere stupendous wealth;but we shd always portray true picture and value of tins so dat it dosnt luk as if we are trying to use figures to weep us sentiments

doctokwus:

How can 700 pieces of jeans(assume mkt price N1k =700,000)+1638(assume anoda 1k=1.6m) of polo shirt come to 7m.
Not making excuses for d customs official,bc we all know,dats d means dey come to acquire dere stupendous wealth;but we shd always portray true picture and value of tins so dat it dosnt luk as if we are trying to use figures to weep us sentiments

They said 'some goods said to be[b] in the region[/b] of N7 million'. Also, the type or cost of the items can range from N1,000 you quoted up to N3,000. Who knows?

However, I get the point you are trying to make. The man may have deliberately marked-up the value of the items in case there's a need to press for refund or so as to add to the importance of the matter. This is why law enforcement agents should respect themselves. If the goods had been taken to the warehouse in Ikeja, there would have been no need for this outcry.

aurenflani:

re: hausa man again.
swine how do you know he is a hausa man. he is a custom man and this criminality is done by all and sundry. when roobery took place you don't say igbo man even though they are 90% perpetrators the majority of igbos are not. pathetic tribalistic pig.

You are a drooling maggot with no brain cell for writing this crap about Ndigbo. All the armed robberies and armed violations of women certainly perpetrated by natives of northern region went under your radar, olodo.

@pukkah,am glad u c my point,because in d process of trying to mark up d value of our claims,we tend to defeat d purpose of d report whc is to expose d havoc dese corrupt govt officials and employees of parastatals and ministries are causing in d lives of individuals and d country.
If dis goes to d court for e.g,a gud lawyer by exposing d lies in d claims will easily get d accused acquitted and whoof goes d case and d customs man goes bac to continue his nefarious activities