By Eguono Odjegba
In the bid to completely shut the doors of the nation’s port against unscrupulous importers of Tramadol and other restricted drugs into the country, the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has stepped up its offensive against the unauthorized importation, distribution, sales and use of this category of medicines, as the Service has resorted to also picking up the classified items in bits and pieces, and other various ingenuous means of concealments.

codeine

In its latest strategy to remain a step ahead of smugglers and importers of the offensive drugs, operatives of the Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ Lagos, last week, announced the arrest of an Iveco Truck with registration number LAM283LG, said to be conveying 498 cartons of CSP Codeine Cough Syrup 100ml, with each carton containing 200 bottles by operatives of the Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ Lagos.

The Unit Controller, Comptroller Mohammed Uba, who said the arrest was made along Ijebu-Ode-Ore expressway, put the value of the banned substance at N199. 2million.

Uba said two suspects arrested in connection with the items will be handed over to the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC)  for further investigation and possible prosecution.

In the list of controlled drugs are Tramadol, Codeine, Diazepam and similar pharmaceuticals that has the potency to excite the human senses, organs and human physiognomy by any margin, which resultant effects are believed to have adversely impacted on the youths, particularly those in the northern part of the country, following official claims that the youths have developed the potential for acting abnormally high and incensed, through the use of these drugs, which appears to have become an addiction.

Government has immediately following this tip off and its ‘confirmation’ via a foreign media story on the matter, made far reaching pronouncements on its restriction, and in some instances, total ban, while the task of policing all import entry points to ensure compliance, falls on the customs service.

The action has produced the single strongest zero tolerance on implementation, the way no other policy implementation or executive order has ever worked in the country in recent years. The crackdown has also, for once in a very long time, attracted the strongest purposeful coalition and official focus amongst relevant departments of government, working with the customs.

While the customs service is leading the onslaught NAFDAC, charged with the regulatory aspect of foods and drugs, has since entered into a sort of umbilical partnership with Customs, to ensure that the restriction is fool proof, and also to ensure that any infraction is detected and impounded, while those linked to such infractions are arrested, investigated and prosecuted.

The premier Apapa Customs Port Command under the command of Comptroller Musa Jibril, was first to intercept a container load of Tramadol, while few more containers have been intercepted since January this year; even as the CAC has remained upbeat and has the entire port under 100percent surveillance in order to achieve zero tolerance of the possible leakage of the Tramadol family products.

Tin Can Island Port under Comptroller Mahmud Baba Musa has since joined the hunt, and has picked up about five container loads of Tramadol and the other controlled items.

Overall, the single largest haul was recorded by the Onne Command, where the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Abubakar Bashir, has also read the riot act to his key officers regarding total offensive for the classified drugs, and is believed to be personally involved in random examinations, following the receipt of intelligence.

After the first nine container loads of the drugs was intercepted late last year, the manhunt for the product types has continued with newer tricks that does not even allow the vessel conveying such to berth before advance measures are taken to deal with it, when it arrives.

In Seme, Comptroller Mohammed Aliyu has been able also to mop some of these drugs, packed in bits and pieces to evade detection.

A statement by the Command Public Relations Officer, Saidu Hurudeen Abdullahi, said the drugs were expired, and have been in the custody of the government warehouse at Seme, putting the Duty Paid Value at One Hundred and Two Million, Four Hundred and Eighty Eight Thousand, three Hundred Naira (N102, 488,300).

The statement said Aliyu destroyed the expired and injurious medicaments in company of the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Christiana Adeyeye, and the agency’s Director of Port Inspection Directorate, Prof. Samson Adebayo, who were at the command on working visit. Aliyu explained that the destruction was in consonance with the Service’s extant rules. Some of the  products destroyed include Tramadol Caps, Codeine Diazepam Tabs, Analgem Injection, Medik55 Paracetamol with Caffeine, large cache of poisonous mosquito coils etc.

In total about thirty three containers of Tramadol has been intercepted, while NAFDAC has been receiving them.

When contacted to react to the seizure of the classified pharmaceuticals in negligible quantities, the Customs National Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller Joseph Attah, said the directive given the Service by the federal government did not discriminate between small or large quantity, but simply, arrest of all unauthorized imports.