Nigeria Customs hands over 399 rifles, ammunition to anti-arms agency

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has intercepted a significant cache of illegal arms, handing over 399 rifles and assorted ammunition to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW). The seizure occurred at the Tin-Can Island Port in Lagos.

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That container was found because of a system, and that system exists because this administration chose to invest in it.

Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, expressed alarm at the volume of arms being imported, particularly with Nigeria approaching another election year. He credited the interception to the agency's advanced risk management system, which flags suspicious containers for inspection. Adeniyi emphasized that technology, not manual processes, is key to identifying illicit cargo, stating that no customs administration can open every container.

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What technology gives us is the ability to know which container to open. What you are looking at this morning is that capability doing precisely what it was built to do.

"What technology gives us is the ability to know which container to open," Adeniyi explained. "What you are looking at this morning is that capability doing precisely what it was built to do." He assured that the ports and borders would not be used for illegal imports, vowing to enhance vigilance, intelligence gathering, and risk systems. The NCS will collaborate with other agencies to apprehend those involved in arms trafficking.

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We will not allow the ports and borders of this country to be used to bring in arms, or anything else that threatens the safety of Nigerians.

The Comptroller-General also issued a stern warning to customs personnel, stating that any officer facilitating the passage of illegal goods would face severe consequences. He highlighted that the intercepted weapons were disassembled and hidden, a deliberate tactic to evade detection. The NCS is committed to preventing arms from entering the country and threatening the safety of Nigerians.

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And I say one thing to our own personnel, as plainly as I say it to anyone outside this Service: the officer who lends himself to this trade, or who uses his position to ease the passage of such goods, will find no shelter with us.