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From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is at the centre of the war against illicit wildlife trade in its efforts to tackle biodiversity and economic degradation.
Officers and men of the service regularly put their lives on the line to battle sophisticated trans-border wildlife trading networks, who, in cahoots with poachers, have relentlessly threatened the ecological balance of Nigerian jungles and food chains.
Tongues are wagging as to how Nigeria lost out in the booming wildlife tourism business, which fetches nations like Kenya, South Africa, Botswana and other African countries millions of dollars annually.
Though Customs appreciates that wildlife remains a huge blessing to mankind, with many benefits ranging from medicinal values and tourism to preservation of cultural heritage, experts insist that concerted efforts must be made to decimate the wreckers of the Nigerian wildlife ecosystem.
A wildlife expert and professor of herpetology at the University of Uyo, Edem Eniang, recently renewed the call on Nigeria to find an alternative to bushmeat consumption for the sake of biodiversity conservation in the country.
According to the 2020 World Wildlife Crime Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC), Nigeria has morphed into a primary transit hub for trafficking illicit wildlife products. These include pangolin scales, ivory and other protected species from Eastern and Central Africa that arrive the country through its borders and thereafter, distributed to their final destinations.
The acting Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, while recently charging his officers and men to redouble their efforts in squaring up to members of the cartel, noted that wildlife plays a significant role in ensuring ecological stability.
He reckons that illegal wildlife trafficking, which vandalises biodiversity, is a multi-billion dollar enterprise involving influential people who feed fat from the proceeds of a destroyed ecosystem.
He said the Service has stepped up enforcement actions against illicit trafficking of wildlife and forestry products and called on other security agencies to sustain the war.
“While plants play an essential role in balancing carbon dioxide and oxygen in the environment and serving as food for herbivores, animals depend on each other for food and survival.
“Carnivore animals like lions, cheetahs and leopards depend on herbivores like antelope for survival. If antelopes become extinct in the jungle, the effect can be detrimental to the Cats’ survival and this accounts for the rapidly-depleting number of wild cats in Nigeria’s jungles”, he said at a recent media briefing.
Adeniyi insisted that concerted efforts must be made to retrieve Nigeria’s natural habitats from poachers, rescue the animals from extinction and ultimately end intrusion into the wild.
The Customs boss also noted that deforestation and depletion of wildlife, especially endangered species, have been issues of global concern; with nations collaborating and sharing intelligence and expertise to end the wildlife poaching menace.
“Traffickers illegally capture a diversity of irreplaceable species and sell them as meat, pets, traditional medicine, décor or in any capacity it is needed for.
“Endangered animals and plants are often the target of wildlife crime because of their rarity and increased economic value. Two such animals are pangolins due to their scales and elephants due to their ivory”, Adeniyi added.
However, several large-scale seizures of wildlife and forest products took place in 2021. In January 2021, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) intercepted a container of mixed wildlife products at the Apapa Port in Lagos. The container was loaded with 2,772 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 4,752kg; 162 sacks of pangolin scales weighing 5,329kg; 5kg of rhino horns; 103kg of skulls suspected to be of lions and other wild cats; and 76 pieces of processed timber.
In August 2021, the Nigeria Customs Service showcased sacks of different kilograms of Pangolin scales and elephant tusks evacuated by the Nigeria Customs Service through the Customs Intelligence Unit and the Headquarters’ Strikeforce at a location on the Eastern side of Ijeoma Street, Lekki, Lagos State worth over N22 billion. The seizure is said to be one of the biggest wildlife seizures so far.
In February 2022, an elephant was found wandering in Saki, Oyo State by a group of farmers. The video went viral, showing the jolly elephant, as it attracted both young and old, but only to be announced dead days after. No thanks to poachers.
NCS also reported another seizure of 14 sacks containing 839.40kgs of pangolin scales and 4 sacks containing 40 pieces of cut ivory weighing 145kgs.
In July 2022, investigators from the Nigeria Customs Service Special Wildlife Office arrested eight suspects in Lagos as they sourced for further illegal wildlife products to Asia.
Further investigations revealed that three of the eight suspects are Vietnamese with speciality in illegal wildlife trade. They were arrested with 7.1 tonnes of pangolin scales and 850 kg of ivory.
In July 2023, Customs arrested three persons allegedly involved in illegal wildlife activities around the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
In a statement, the Wildlife Conservative Society in Calabar, Cross River State, said the NCS made the arrests following a series of intelligence-led operations they supported.
The statement explained that one of the suspects was apprehended in Jimeta, Yola, Adamawa State, with four sacks of ivory weighing 89kg.
Customs in Murtala Muhammed Airport Command said it made a seizure of six packages of suspected dried shark fins with a Free On Board (FOB) value of N221,885,769.02 and 25 packages of suspected dried donkey genitals with an FOB value of N1,010,372,761.98 bringing it to a total of N1,232,258,531 from January to July.
The Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Muhammed Sani Yusuf, during a press briefing, said, “The suspects in connection with this illegally intended export have been arrested, and investigation is ongoing.
“These items were seized mainly because of various infractions on Export guidelines and failure to comply with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Convention on endangered species as enshrined in the Nigeria Customs Service Act.“ he added.
Wildlife experts say if proper care is not given to wildlife, in the future, only pictures will be used to describe wild animals to the next generation as the animals become totally extinct.
Wildlife trafficking undermines and threatens the ability and efforts of states to manage their natural resources. It can result in severe economic losses, particularly affecting developing countries that rely on revenue generated by legal trade. Forest crime threatens rural livelihoods where people’s subsistence and income depend on wildlife, including those based on ecotourism.
Wildlife maintains balance in ecosystems. If Wildlife trafficking is not curtailed, the stability and balance it brings to the environment will be lost in no time.
The Nigeria Customs Service, through its numerous seizures of wildlife, has proved its continuous fight as stated in Section 245 (1) of the NCS Act, 2023 and also under Export Prohibition Schedule VI of the extant Common External Tariff, which prohibits their exportation.
More so, Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES Convention); hence, it cannot be used as a transit hub or illegal wildlife market.
To strengthen its capacity in the fight against Wildlife crimes in Nigeria, the Nigeria Customs Service, in 2021, signed a co-operational agreement with the Wildlife Justice Commission.
This partnership requested ongoing support from the WJC to enhance the efficiency of the Customs Intelligence Unit, the umbrella unit for the NCS Special Wildlife Office, and this support has recorded outstanding results listed below, for which both organisations and the world are proud.
Between July 2021 and now, nine illegal wildlife enforcement operations have been carried out jointly, producing seizure of Over 10,819.48 kilograms, 21 persons arrested out of which 8 are convicted already and others in trial, in Nigeria Federal High Court.
Beyond these arrests, the WJC supported with the provision of operational support, which resulted in the following: First DNA analysis on seized wildlife, forensic examination for mobile phones to support wildlife investigation, holding a workshop for NCS legal department in September 2022 where NCS Legal Advisor led the team of prosecutors on the current wildlife cases, going through all the case files, available evidence and the expert witness for use in prosecutions and similar evidence that is available to other Nigerian agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
The procurement and installation in 2023 of an iBase (intelligence database), NCS Intelligence HQ, to consolidate the intelligence from all wildlife cases to proactively target, investigate and further arrest wildlife criminals.
In view of the above, the acting Comptroller General of Customs and his management team commended the support provided by the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) and its donors, for which NCS has successfully disrupted wildlife trafficking and illegal wildlife trade in Nigeria.
