- Customs Probe Military Wares Importation
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd), on Wednesday inaugurated a high-powered investigative panel to fish out all those connected with the illegal importation of military wares.
The committee headed by Assistant Comptroller-General, Sanusi Umar, is to conduct a thorough investigation into the recent importation of military camouflage outfits into the country.
Other members of the probe panel are Bukar Amajam, Olomu B.O, Okonmah S, Oloworaran J.O, and Wudapba T.K.
Officers and men of the NCS Federal operations Unit, Zone ‘C’ and operatives of the Onne Area II Command Port-Harcourt had intercepted two containers in the last one month.
The containers with reference number MRSU 3040288 and MRKU 4909151 were found to contain military camouflage jackets and other items. They were intercepted on July 27, 2018 and August 16, 2018.
The first container was found to contain 11 bales; each containing 400 pairs of new set of military camouflage uniform totalling 4,400 sets.
The second container was found to contain 620 sets of completely sewn military camouflage outfits and caps.
It also contained 10,100 pieces of inner military T-shirts, and 512 pairs of military jungle boots.
The importation of the items was said to be contrary to Schedule 4(13) of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff which fell under the Absolute Prohibition and Section 46(b) of Customs and Excise Management Act.
A statement from the Public Relations Officer, NCS, Mr Joseph Attah, quoted the CG as saying that preliminary investigations had led to the arrest of five persons including the importer.
He said despite the arrest of the five people, there was a need for the service to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter to expose others who might be connected with the importation of the illegal items.
He said, “Even though preliminary investigations have led to the arrest of five persons including the importer of both consignments, it is imperative that a painstaking investigation is conducted to unravel all those who are remotely connected to the criminal importation with a view to punishing offenders and preventing a recurrence.”
One of the terms of reference of the committee, according to the statement, is to investigate all alleged breaches of the Customs Import Clearance Procedure as set out in its extant law and statute books.
The panel is also to investigate and establish the full facts of the case in relation to the importation of both containers (MRSU 3040288 and MRKU 4909151).
The committee is also saddled with the task of identifying all parties involved in the illegal importation and establish their degree of culpability and to profile all importation previously made by the sole importer or his cronies with the intent of discovering if this had been a trend.
The panel is also to make recommendation to the NCS management on the way forward as well as liaise with other security agencies, should the need arise in the course of the investigation.
Responding on behalf of the committee members, the chairman of the panel told the CG that it would do a thorough job.
