By UDEME CLEMENT

Comptroller Dan Ugo is the new Customs Area Controller (CAC), Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A, of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).  Before his deployment to FOU, known to be the Customs busiest anti-smuggling network covering the entire South West of Nigeria, Ugo worked as CAC of the nation’s premier Port Command of Apapa, MMIA, Onne port and served in various capacities in the service with about 30 years experience. He speaks on the unit’s 306 seizures in two months, the arrest of 51 suspects and the action plan to make FOU more active.

Your unit recorded 306 seizures in two months. Can you give us description of the seizures?
To start with, FOU is vested with the responsibility of suppressing smuggling, ensuring compliance with the laws and facilitating legitimate trade in line with global trend to enhance economic growth and development. As the hot bed of anti-smuggling in the South-West, this presupposes a very aggressive approach to the issue of smuggling, which is our core function. From February 27 to March 2012, the unit recorded a total of 306 seizures with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N130million.

We also apprehended 51 suspects with various cases pending in the Federal High Court. Comparatively, this record accounts for over 40 per cent increase when compared with the corresponding period in 2011. The seizures included shoes, bags, textile materials and other prohibited goods. We intercepted long trucks loaded with used tyres, furniture and used fridges. Used fridges constitute serious health hazards and some people even put fridges in the same room they sleep. Another issue is false declaration.

For instance, the owner of the truck made declaration for empty truck but concealed other contra-band items inside it. We also seized another truck declared as empty but concealed with furniture of various types. Another truck in the warehouse was impounded with used tyres and second-hand clothes concealed in cartons of Star beer and the driver was also arrested. 59 vehicles are among seizures recorded in the period under review.

Comptroller Dan Ugo

What measures did you put in place to make the unit more active?
These achievements did not just come without some operational hazards. We had altercations with miscreants and smugglers during our operations but we remain focused and undeterred in the face of any hostility. When I assumed duty, I toured the borders within the Command and I realised that the borders are porous and smugglers often use unapproved routes to bring in prohibited goods, so we mapped new strategies to monitor the borders.

I visited several Commands in Lagos axis to foster a good working relationship. I also interacted with officers from other sister agencies in an attempt to further strengthen the existing relationships for effective collaboration. Just recently, I paid a courtesy visit to the new Commissioner of police, Lagos Command, Umar Abubakar Manko and still intend to continue with such visits to the leadership of other relevant agencies. All these are aimed at enhancing our relationships for better performance.

We also embarked on mass sensitisation of the citizenry on the dangers of smuggling and the effect on the nation’s economic fabric. This campaign has paid off in view of the unprecedented successes recorded recently by almost all the Commands in the zone in terms of high revenue generation and seizures. I appreciate the efforts of the customs management for providing the enabling environment for operational efficiency through the provision of functional patrol vehicles, staff motivation, training and retraining of officers, tools and logistics to boost our efforts.

FOU is charged with the responsibility of enforcement.  How do you detect prohibited goods and carry out enforcement when you are not on the road?

We do not need to be on the road to detect crime. We have scientific methods of detecting and intercepting offensive items coming into the country. Our operation now is mostly intelligence driven. As such, we use our intelligent network to function efficiently. Also we are curtailing smuggling within the waterways.

How do you prosecute offenders to ensure they do not go back to smuggling?
At present, we have cases pending in court. We only arrest and charge suspects to court, while prosecution follows the due process of the law.