...hands over 399 seized rifles to NCCSALW
The Comptroller-General of Customs Adewale Adeniyi, has vowed that the Service would intensify surveillance and enforcement operations to prevent criminal networks from exploiting the country’s borders, ports and airports to smuggle prohibited arms ahead of the next general elections.
Adeniyi gave the assurance in Lagos on Monday during the handing over of 399 fully assembled JGF pump-action rifles and 535 assorted firearm components intercepted at the Tin Can Island Port penultimate week to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW).
Adeniyi, explained that the service has finalised the coupling and detailed examination of the arms seizure uncovering 399 fully assembled Jojef firearms alongside a critical assortment of supplementary rifle parts.
According to him, the additional rifle parts recovered include 89 frames, 16 heat shields, 10 trigger pins, three pistons, 25 locking lugs, 80 charging handles, 39 pistol-grip screws, 34 springs, 57 trigger groups, 66 foregrip latches, 45 foregrips/handguards, four pistol grips and five barrels.
Adeniyi warned that criminal networks could seek to exploit Nigeria’s borders, ports and airports ahead of the next general elections to move prohibited items into the country but assured that the service would intensify surveillance and enforcement operations to prevent such activities.
“We are about entering a major election cycle, and we know that by this period, men of the underworld will want to use our borders, our ports, our airports to bring in items like this. We are going to redouble our efforts to ensure that we do not allow them to do so,” Adeniyi said.
According to him, Customs cannot physically open every container entering the country, making technology driven risk profiling critical to identifying suspicious consignments. He explained that the risk management system enables the Service to determine which containers require physical examination, adding that the interception demonstrated the effectiveness of the system.
Following the complete inventory and assessment of the illicit shipment, the CGC handed over the seized armaments to the Director General of the NCCSALW underscoring a unified inter-agency commitment to taking dangerous weapons entirely off the streets and ensuring that those behind the trafficking network are tracked down and brought to justice.
He added that the two suspects arrested during the preliminary investigation identified as Robert Eze and Ejeogu Godson had been remanded by the Federal High Court in Lagos, with their arraignment scheduled for August 25.
He described the development as more than a seizure, noting that the interception, investigation, arrest of suspects, prosecution and handover of the firearms represented a complete enforcement chain.
He pledged that the Service would continue to strengthen intelligence gathering, risk management and collaboration with sister security agencies to identify and disrupt attempts to smuggle firearms into the country.
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