By Ifeyinwa Obi
LAGOS — A Chinese, Mr. Ding Shaw, and a Nigerian, Mr. Ifeanyi Dike, have been arrested by Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone ‘A’ of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, for allegedly attempting to export a container load of metal scraps through the Apapa port, in Lagos.

The container, which has a street value of N18 million was intercepted while it was on its way to the Apapa port for export to China.
Parading the suspects before newsmen in Lagos, yesterday, Comptroller of FOU, Zone ‘A’ Command, Mr. Victor Dimka,  said the seizure was made as a result of a tip off.

He said prior to the arrest of the two men, the said container had been trailed and arrested in Apapa on July 20, 2011 while the suspects were traced to their company, located in Ikorodu, Lagos.

Dimka said  the Nigerian was recruited to help source for the metal scraps, aluminum and junks from all over the country, while the Chinese, is a representative of the recipient company in China, which monitors the exportation of the items.

According to him, “The export of these is prohibited and it falls under Schedule 6, Item 5 of the Export Prohibition List. If you use this locally, you can take it to the smelting companies, which will use it locally for the benefit of manufacturing, but as the government has pronounced them banned, you have no business exporting it.”

He said, at the time of arrest, the suspects had on them N745,000  and 7.9 Yen (Chinese currency), which they intended to bribe their way out of the port. “The money had  been confiscated by the custom as evidence for the law court and the suspects will also be arraigned in the law court,” he added.

Sounding a note of warning to smugglers, he said “We want to tell Nigerians that it is not business as usual. If you think you can circumvent the law of the land, you have the Nigerian Custom under the able leadership of Abdullahi Inde Dikko to contend with. We will stop at nothing to see that we bring them to book. They did not break the law with impunity alone, they even went as far as offering N745,000 and 7.9 Yen, Chinese currency bribe.”