Nigeria Customs Service at work!!!

A bus loaded with cartons of 30,000 pieces of live
cartridges but concealed with tubers of yam and
bags of yam flour was on Tuesday, March 10 been
seized by the Nigeria Customs Service.
But the customs officials working along Saki-Ago
Are, led by Superintendent of Customs A. Okoi,
proved that they were well-trained, as their eagle
eyes caught the conveyer of the unwholesome
products while the men alleged to be the owners
fled on sighting the customs officials.
Speaking during a press briefing, the Area
Controller, Mr Richard Oteri, said that the driver of
the bus with registration number KW 286 SHH was
intercepted in the early hours of Monday, March 10
in which the live cartridges were discovered. The
driver, Adegoke Abdulrahman, was also arrested.
Crime Reports learnt that Saki town has routes that
could be used to link other countries such as
Republic of Benin, Togo Republic and Burkina Faso.
Many illegal routes along the borders of the
countries have been used to bring in arms and
ammunition into Nigeria. Similar seizure of 56,750
live cartridges was also made by the area
command on May 18, 2013 along same Saki route,
Mr Oteri revealed.
Speaking with Crime Reports after the press
briefing, the bus driver claimed that he was ignorant
of the content of the bags, as he was just hired by
the owners to convey them to Ibadan.
According to the indigene of Ago Amodu residing in
Saki, both in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State, "on
Monday March 10, I was at Ago Amodu town to get
foodstuff for my brother's child naming ceremony
taking place in Lagos State on Tuesday. As some
people were helping me to slaughter and cut the
ram we wanted to use, I went to Oje Owode area
where I saw two men. One was a Yoruba man while
the other was Igbo.
"They told me they had goods they were taking to
Ibadan, saying they vehicle with which they were
conveying the goods broke down. I asked them the
kind of goods they wanted me to convey and they
said they were bags of yam flour and tubers of
yam. I told them I wanted to go and settle some
things first but they urged me to them follow and
view the goods.
"I took my vehicle and followed them. I saw the
goods at the back of a pick-up van. I told them to
wait until I concluded my brother's errands but
again, they urged me to drop my vehicle,
volunteering to load the goods into it themselves.
They said they would have finished before I would
return. We negotiated the fare and after sizing up
the goods at the back of the van, I asked them to
pay N30,000.
"They pleaded that I should collect N25,000 from
them. We agreed on that and I left for Saki. By the
time I returned, they had finished loading the goods
and I was given N5,000 as advance payment, with
them promising to pay me the balance when we get
to Iwo Road area of Ibadan after they must have
withdrawn some cash from an Automated Teller
Machine. They told me the goods would be
offloaded beside a petrol station at Iwo Road.
"I also picked four women as passengers before
we proceeded to Ibadan. At Iseyin, one of the
women said she wanted to buy drinks and bread,
so I parked. That was where a patrol team of
Nigeria Customs Service came to meet us. They
demanded to know what was in the bus and I told
them it was bags of yam flour and tubers of yam.
"The Igbo man came and told me to open up to
them that there were 10 bags of rice and cartons of
cartridges among the goods. I exclaimed in fear,
telling him that I could not speak on what I did not
know about. But he assured me that the customs
officials only needed to be settled.
"When we got to the customs' office, I relayed what
the Igbo man told me and they asked me to follow
them to their office. As we were going, I turned
back and noticed that the owners of the goods had
fled. Other passengers had also left. This is the
first time I will be experiencing this kind of thing. I
have never done it before."

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