LAGOS: There is confusion over whose duty it is to conduct further investigation into the 440 arms intercepted by the Tin-can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, about two weeks ago. While the Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, claims it has nothing to do with the investigation, saying the consignment was only brought to them for safe-keeping, the services’ head office says it is the responsibility of Tin-Can Island Command to carry out the investigation. The FOU said it was the responsibility of the headquarters to continue with the investigation. Public Relations Officer of the command, Uche Ejieseme, told Vanguard that the investigation was being handled by the service’s investigation team.
Asked whether it was the command’s team or headquarters that was conducting the investigation, he said: “Customs is Customs.” His counterpart at the FOU, Jerry Atteh, said it was the duty of the intercepting command to continue with the investigation, since it was informed that the offending consignment was only brought to its base for safe-keeping. On the other hand, National Public Relations Officer of the service, Joseph Attah, said the investigation was being handled by the service but when asked which team was handling the investigation, he said it should be the duty of the intercepting command. Recall that the identity of the importer was not revealed by the service when the offending consignment was intercepted for security reasons. Vanguard gathered that there are some importers who preferred to steam their cargo at bonded terminals outside the port for obvious reasons.
The container in which the 440 arms were found was alleged to have been steamed down at Zenith Shipping and Bonded Terminal in an isolated area in Monkey Village, somewhere around Maza-Maza. When Vanguard visited the terminal, weekend, to get the reaction of the owners over the facility, a lady who identified herself simply as Ijeoma, said the Terminal Manager was not on seat and that even if he was around, he wouldn’t speak unless there was a formal application. “I do not know what you are talking about, I think you are talking to the wrong person and you are not even invited. You should write to us first to inform us that you are coming,” the lady bellowed.
