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In the history of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), no officer has achieved the feat accomplished by Compt Babatunde Olomu, the Customs Area Controller for Apapa, who in a single day raked in a whopping over N17billion into the Federation Account.
This is the stuff this officer and gentleman is made of. In recent Customs history, it has been the tradition of Comptroller General of Customs to post only the “best” officer within the Comptroller cadre to Apapa . And this is for obvious reasons. As the premier port, Apapa Command accounts for at least 50 per cent of cargo traffic and revenue projection . It was therefore, not a surprise that when the time came for a new helmsman to take charge at the Command early this year, the mantle of leadership fell on the shoulders of Dr Babatunde Olomu.
Before his assumption of duties at Apapa, Olomu, who many describe as the “Face of a New Customs Service,” was Area Controller at the Delta/Edo Command and Controller Special Duties in CGC’s Office were he left indelible prints on the sands of time.
A thorough bred officer and a fine gentleman, Olomu shocked the Maritime world when his Command collected a whopping N17.5 billion in one day on February 23, 2024. He also proceeded to hit a monthly revenue haul of N201.8 billion in the month of July, 2024, a feat that had never been achieved by any Command in the history of the Service. With less than four months to the end of this year, Olomu is already coasting to the N2 trillion mark, yet another landmark in the history of the Nigeria Customs Service. Explaining the reasons behind his monumental success in Apapa, Olomu said: “When we came in the first message we sent to officers and agents was the need to enforce compliance, it is not that there was any increase in cargo traffic because if you checked the records over the corresponding period last year, you would have realized that there was a relative decline in cargo traffic compared over the corresponding period this year”.
The Apapa Command helmsman explained that most importantly, the man behind the success story of his Command remains CGC Wale Adeniyi, who has provided all available tools and motivation for officers and men to succeed.
Comptroller Olomu also spoke on how he was able to achieve so much within such a short time frame.
“It is not as if cargo throughput has improved in Apapa within the corresponding period last year, but because efforts were made to block leakages, while insisting on compliance both on the part of officers, as well as importers and their agents”.
The Apapa Command under his watch also recorded seizures of poultry products, fake and unregistered pharmaceuticals and cutlasses running into billions of naira. Speaking on legacies, Compt Olomu explained that “it is very important that we groom and mentor young officers who will take over from us once we leave the stage. Our joy will be watching a crop of young, brilliant and enterprising officers take over from us.”
