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Uche Usim, Abuja
With the battle against illicit drugs getting fiercer, Aminu Dahiru, Customs Assistant Comptroller-General in charge of Enforcement, Investigation+ and Inspection, said the Service will not be deterred from ridding the country contraband items despite sustained attacks on its officers.
Recently, he supervised the destruction of N14.7 billion outlawed tramadol and other drugs in the Sagamu area of Ogun State, where he also promised smugglers hell.
He spoke to journalists on the sidelines of the event.
Dealing with prohibited drugs
What you see here is a product of teamwork. We are cooperating with ourselves to fight crime and overcome the illicit trade in prohibited drugs. This is one way to protect the lives of our citizens from destruction and save the society from the many dangers of criminality associated with trade and consumption of illicit drugs. What you are seeing here is a product of uncompromising enforcement, coupled with diligent investigations by Customs officers from various commands where these seizures were made. In the course of our anti-smuggling assignment, some of our men came under attack, they rejected bribes, got wounded and some even died in the line of duty. But we are not deterred. We are forging ahead and will remain resolute in this battle against drug smuggling and any form of smuggling. By the grace of God, we shall continue to be victorious.
For this destruction, I am congratulating members of my committee for carrying out this national duty. Because like I said in my speech, this is beyond state, it is national duty, a service to humanity and as a service to humanity. Don’t forget it’s a service to God.I sincerely appreciate them and I equally appreciate the Controller-General of Customs as well as Director-General of the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control for giving us all the enabling environment to carry out this assignment. At the initial stage, we were scared that we may not be able to do it, but with the assistance of other sister agencies like the Nigerian Army, we have made history and I want to congratulate Nigerians for being a part of this. I said sometime ago that Nigeria Customs Service has promised henceforth to be celebrating Nigeria at every moment and this is exactly what we are doing.
Is this the highest destruction ever?
Under this administration? Yes. This is the first time we are destroying such an amount of tramadol. If these seizures were not made and dangerous drugs of this quantity were allowed into the society, we will have huge problems on our hands as a people and a country.
Collaboration
We have robust collaboration with other sister agencies and the military. It is very good and has continued to improve. The synergy is commendable. There is this cooperation that where a regulatory body is concerned with a seizure or importation, Customs draw their attention to it. When a seizure or consignment is meant for them, we normally hand it over to them.
For example, anything that has to do with ecosystem, when it is seized, we do hand over to NESREA (National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency), likewise any hard drugs like marijuana, we hand over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)
Now, this is for NAFDAC to regularise. So, that is why we are partnering with them for this destruction. These drugs being destroyed today is a meagre amount compared to the cumulative quantity we have been handing over to NAFDAC and NDLEA over the years. Are these all the drugs seized nationwide or your committee has identified more seizures in other parts of the country?
We are starting the destruction here because of the high volume of seizures made in the South West where a lot of Customs activities take place. We shall be doing similar destructions in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Bauchi where we have Customs zonal offices. Residents and stakeholders in these areas should await our invitation soon.
Even as we are here, some of our anti-smuggling officers have been receiving threats for their exploits. Smugglers of these drugs are unhappy because we stopped them from making money through destruction of lives.
