ZAINAB JUNAID
When Comptroller General of Customs, CGC Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, redeployed Comptroller Ahmadu Bello Shuaibu as Area Controller of Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone B, Kaduna, of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), on Wednesday April 17, 2024, it was a strategy and measure to enhance trade facilitation, generates more revenue, curb smuggling activities, and enhance efficiency in the Unit.
This strategy from observation, started paying off immediately Comptroller Shuaibu assumed office as the Unit’s helmsman.
His leadership style blew a giant hole in the activities of Economic Saboteurs who are plying the Northern region to perpetuate their illegal enterprises, crippling their existence.
Comptroller Shuaibu who has suddenly become Smugglers Nightmare in the region has continued to hit the miscreants hard, by making significant seizures worth millions of naira that would have been sabotaged by the mischievous.
Known for his niche strategies from his precedent, the anti- smuggling Czar deployed proactive tactics to greatly undermined and tamed the unscrupulous elements plying the route and he is gradually changing the narratives of the region with his leadership style from its familiar illegal habits.
Recall that the menace of smuggling and evasion of duties through Northern borders was at it’s peak and has wreaked havoc on the nation’s ailing economy, but four months of assuming duty as FOU Zone B helmsman, Comptroller Shuaibu took bold steps to curb this menace by deploying competent officers across the nooks and crannies of the Unit and simultaneously complement CGC Adewale Adeniyi’s mission statement of consolidation, collaboration and innovation.
This move yielded tremendous success as seizures of contraband are being recorded on a weekly basis.
In the last four months, vehicles, rice, consignments of pangolin scale, worth over three billion, second hand clothes, among others had been intercepted by customs officers under his watch.
A breakdown of the value of the seizures made within the period under review include- 750 sacks of Donkey bones and Donkey meat as well as other prohibited items valued at N3.1 billion; 58,740 sachets of tramadol and 48,000 ampules of Analgin injection worth N167.5Million; 12 vehicles (means of conveyance) 174 Bags of Foreign Rice (50 kg each), 234 Jerry cans of PMS (25 litres each) 109 bales of second hand clothing 367 cartons of Spaghetti 50 cartons of Macaroni 47 Jerry cans of foreign vegetable oil; 6 sacks of used shoes; 100 sacks of snuff 30 bags of foreign sugar (25kg each) 2,255 cartons of herbicide chemical; 10 cartons of foreign couscous 235 Bags of Foreign flour (25kg each) and Over 100 cartons of general goods among others.
His intimidating track records has made the miscreants to be on the run.
Comptroller Shu’aibu, who has always informed the general public that Compliance is not only a legal obligation but a strategic choice that ensures the smooth and efficient flow of goods across Nigerian borders, encouraged the calcitrants to embrace legal activities and desist from unpatriotism.
His words, “Smuggling has really affected the economy of Nigeria in several ways. It hinders the local industry, discourages legal imports and reduces the volume of revenues collected from duties and levies by the states. This Unit will continue to enforce the Federal Government’s policies in line with international best practices, no matter the campaign of calumny against the Service”.
