The Federal Government’s ban on the importation of some essential goods has apparently made smugglers to become more daring in their operations across the country, especially at the border posts, where such items are brought in daily as contraband.
Smugglers of these banned goods also make millions of naira at the expense of tax-payers, while the revenue expected to accrue into the purse of the government, is denied.
Of course, the ingenuity of the smugglers could be felt in the multibillion naira goods being taken into the country through these border posts, while the security agents charged with the responsibility of keeping vigil over their illicit activities either look the other way or decide to collaborate with these economic saboteurs.
A month-long monitoring of the smugglers’ activities by The Point revealed that several millions of naira are lost by the government to their ingenuity. Some of the tricks employed by the smugglers to bring in the contraband into the country include the following:
Extra tyre
Most of the vehicles fitted with extra tyres around the country’s border posts need to be properly checked. Investigations revealed that many of these extra tyres were usually stuffed with drugs and other contraband. Security agents are usually made to believe that the so called extra–tyres are actually what they are said to be. But checks have revealed that gold or diamond smuggled from either Ghana or other neighbouring countries, could be hidden in those tyres. Their detection becomes cumbersome due to the defect in most of the scanners installed at the nation’s usually porous border posts.
Vehicle exhaust pipes
It has lately been discovered that even vehicle exhaust pipes are continuously being used to smuggle certain contraband into the country. Such contraband so smuggled into Nigeria include items such as drugs and trinkets.
‘Only a bag of rice’
Vehicles claiming to have carried only one bag of rice legally allowed, have been discovered to have more contraband hidden in them than those of the smugglers of the commodity. A bag of rice is usually used as a decoy to hide even dangerous contraband such as caches of arms and ammunition. Security agents had in the past arrested smugglers, who used this ploy to bring contraband into the country. On some occasions, smugglers were also known to have concealed hard drugs inside bags of cassava flour, but curious security officers would become suspicious and probe further why cassava flour should be smuggled into a country producing tons of such product.
Overnight discharge
This ploy in the smugglers’ world has to do with the smuggling of essential commodities such as rice into the country between midnight and 2.00 am. Border communities such as Oja-Odan, Imeko, Ilashe, Idiroko and others are known to have become rendezvous for this type of illegal activity. The smugglers do this with the active connivance of some Customs’ officers, who usually aid and abet. Their active participation is never in isolation as they take their own fair share in the sales of such commodities.
Second-hand shoes and clothes
Undoubtedly, trading in second hand shoes and clothing materials, popularly known as ‘Okrika’, is a lucrative business along the border posts. It has been observed that smugglers usually hide under the guise of trading in these items, and in the process, bring in other contrabands such as illicit drugs. Some even go to the extent of plaiting their hair like women, and in the process, conceal dangerous drugs in it. In the recent past, no fewer than ten smugglers using such means to traffic drugs were arrested. Their arrest was effected apparently because they missed the posting schedule of alleged “collaborator-officers,” who were supposed to be on duty while they passed through the border with their illicit consignments. It is pertinent to note that big time smugglers know the routine postings of officers manning the borders at every point in time.
Border sleepers
Border sleepers are those dirtylooking loners, who would pretend to be hustling between the Nigerian border posts and the neigbouring countries. They are known to the security agents due to the length of their stay and operations at the border posts. Their mode of operation is to collect highly priced contraband from their “co-confederate” and pass it through the borders to the other side. While the real owner would be under-going security agents’ screening at the border posts, the contraband would have gone across undetected. Border sleepers do this for a fee, depending on the market value of the item(s) to be smuggled across the borders.
Gas cylinder concealment
Many smugglers across the borders are known to have concealed small arms and ammunition in gas cylinders, which they would claim to be acetylene gas. The mode of concealment of such dangerous items and illicit drugs include wrapping them in carbon papers to evade electronic detection. Not quite long ago, a man was arrested at the Seme Border with five kilogrammes of weeds suspected to be Indian hemp. The cat was let out of the bag when the suspect curiously attempted to bribe a security officer. Under close examination, it was discovered that the gas cylinder had previously been cut into two and the drugs inserted in it before it was welded together again.
Beverage tin
Drugs and other items of value are equally known to have been concealed in beverages’ tins. Some quantity of gold, illegally taken from Ilesha, Osun State, was at a point in time intercepted and recovered at a border town. Besides, the men and officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have repeatedly recovered drugs concealed in cartons of beverage. As the heat on smuggling activities has increased now, security officers now routinely check all beverage containers and packs with a view to making more discoveries. Vegetable oil tin Imported vegetable oil tins are known to have been used for smuggling activities by cross-border armed robbers. Their modus operandi is to cut such a tin or plastic rubber, conceal their neatly wrapped weapons inside and purport same to be vegetable oil. Security officers have to be extravigilant to uncover such concealment. Unofficial statistics show that over 2,000 pistols are brought into the country annually through this illegal means.
Use of diplomatic vehicles
Diplomatic vehicles are known to have been used for illegal activities at our border posts. Perhaps, as a result of the immunity Nigeria enjoys, security checks on the vehicles are usually relaxed. However, trafficking in arms and ammunition as well as other contraband has become commonplace among the drivers attached to such vehicles. The trick they usually employ is driving recklessly past the border posts with their illicit consignment without anyone raising any eye brow.
