The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it has handed more than 399 seized rifles to the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, in a major blow to illegal arms proliferation in the country.
Speaking with journalists on Monday, the Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, explained that the service has finalised the coupling and detailed examination of a massive arms seizure at the Tincan Island Port Command, uncovering 399 fully assembled Jojef firearms alongside a critical assortment of supplementary rifle parts.
According to him, the additional rifle parts recovered include 89 frames, 16 heat shields, 10 trigger pins, three pistons, 25 locking lugs, 80 charging handles, 39 pistol-grip screws, 34 springs, 57 trigger groups, 66 foregrip latches, 45 foregrips/handguards, four pistol grips and five barrels.
Speaking on the development, Adeniyi warned that criminal networks could seek to exploit Nigeria’s borders, ports and airports ahead of the next general elections to move prohibited items into the country.
Adeniyi assured Nigerians that the service would intensify surveillance and enforcement operations to prevent such activities.
“We are about entering a major election cycle, and we know that by this period, men of the underworld will want to use our borders, our ports, our airports to bring in items like this. We are going to redouble our efforts to ensure that we do not allow them to do so,” Adeniyi said.
The Customs boss reaffirmed the service’s commitment to intelligence-led enforcement, stronger border surveillance and collaboration with sister security agencies, including the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) under the Office of the National Security Adviser, to identify and dismantle trafficking networks while safeguarding national security and facilitating legitimate trade.
Following the complete inventory and assessment of the illicit shipment, the CGC handed over the seized armaments to the Director General of the NCCSALW under the Office of the NSA, underscoring a unified inter-agency commitment to taking dangerous weapons entirely off the streets and ensuring that those behind the trafficking network are tracked down and brought to justice.
He added that the two suspects arrested during the preliminary investigation are being taken over by the Office of the NSA.
