Explains Why Officers Didn’t Use Force on Alleged Smuggler

By Halimah Olamide

The Nigerian Customs Service on Sunday described as “grievous” allegations made by an alleged smuggler, Dende Ibrahim against the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi.
A viral video of the alleged smuggler had shown him mentioning the name of the boss of the service where he accused officers of allowing his (Comptroller General) trailers carrying smuggled rice into Nigeria while they stopped his own.
In the video, Dende was seen threatening to kill an officer of the Customs for having the boldness to stop his smuggled rice.
Some of the officers were also seen pacifying the alleged smuggler.
But speaking to the NPO Reports on Sunday, spokesman of the Nigerian Customs, Chief Superintendent of Customs, Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada, said that the Service has to be strategic in its response to the allegation by Dende adding that the allegations are grievous.
Maiwada said at the appropriate time, the Service will respond officially adding that the situation is being studied for now.
“Our response will be well articulated, and we are not going to keep quiet about the issue. However, some of the allegations are grievous, there are so many angles to the video that people may not actually know what transpired.
“It is the seizure of goods allegedly smuggled into the country that led to that altercation,” the Customs spokesman said

Saying the Service is supposed to issue a statement, Maiwada told the NPO Reports that “we want to study the situation carefully. We need to look at it and come up with a message from the perspective of what transpired and the position of the service. So, it is not something that we will rush into because we are not just disseminating information, but rather, we are engaging in strategic communication.”

On why the alleged smuggler was seen in the video being pacified by men of the Service rather than arrest him, Maiwada said the best strategy is to use the kinetic approach in “solving these kinds of issues.”
He said anyone familiar with the Yewa border axis would agree that the situation in the area is very precarious adding that officers could have used force which could escalate things.
He said, “We must be very deliberate in our actions as there are certain actions you might take that will escalate the situation, lead to loss of lives. We are very mindful of the environment we create and are going to dish out records and data of any seizures made.”
An investigative journalist, Fikayo Soyombo, had released an expose of the smuggling taking place in the area with alleged connivance of top officers of the Service.
In his report, he had indicted top officers of putting the lives of younger officers in dangers with their collaborations with criminals who also are alleged to bring in arms into the country.