By Eguono Odjegba

The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Tin Can Island Customs Area Controller, CAC, Comptroller Adekunle Oloyede, has debunked the insinuations that 19 containers said to have been cleared from the command on bond but allegedly went missing without reaching the designated Customs bonded terminal, contained arms and ammunitions.

A freight forwarders trade union had raised the alarm during a recent protest at the premises of Clarion Bonded Terminals Alajika, Lagos, claiming that the 19 containers belonging to its members went missing on transit between Tin Can and Alakija Satelite Town, Lagos.

The group further alleged that some of the containers were laden with arms and ammunition.

However, the customs area controller, who assumed duty long after the incident, said that no container with arms can be allowed to leave the port adding that the matter remains mere allegations.

He, however, disclosed that he has set up a committee to investigate the matter, noting that the committee is still working and that its report will be made public as soon as it is ready.

Oloyede who was fielding questions from reporters on the issue said: “I received their letter on Monday because I will not treat what is not official. When I got the letter on Monday, I set up a committee with the DC Admin as the Chairman. I have involved O/C Bond and even our legal adviser to look into this issue and report back actually what happened to the 19 containers.

“Nobody can say there are arms there. We know how to profile the exporter, we know how to profile the importer. We will go historical and from history, we will be able to know if the exporter or the importer is in that trade of arms. So, you have to give us time to officially look into this and get back to you.”

On the allegation of container flying in the command, he said since taking over the leadership of the command, the management of the command had not heard any such case, and said the command under his watch remains proactive and will not condone any breach of the customs extant laws.

“About two weeks ago, we had intelligence that some of the transfer on vehicles that I approved, some vehicles that were not supposed to be part of the list were infused into the list and I can tell you, six of the vehicles are in the Enforcement Unit.

“Of course, we got them out and I took them to Enforcement and because of that, I arranged a meeting between the Five Star Logistics, the two terminals operators: Clarion and Classic and we entered into another Standard Operating Procedures for transfer whereby every transfer must come with landing certificate.

“Without that landing certificate, after one or two weeks, I will not sign any other transfer to those locations again. That is the Standard Operating Procedure that we agreed upon and to fine-tune this procedure, we are also having a meeting of all stakeholders before the end of this week so that we could look at issues.

“Yes, there could be issues but we are on top of it. That’s why we could take six exotic cars infused into one of the transfers and they are with us in the Enforcement Unit.”