Officers from the Nigeria Customs Service’s Zone A Federal Operations Unit seized 81,425 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol in the Lagos neighborhood of Badagry.
Despite an attempt by the suspected smugglers to scare away the officers while engaging them in sporadic shooting throughout the all-night operation, the officers were successful.
Hussein Ejibunu, the unit’s acting controller, explained that the suspects used Dane guns to shoot at Customs officers who made the seizure, which was packed in jerrycans and sacks.
He claimed that the seizure was the result of painstaking intelligence and perseverance on the part of officers dedicated to safeguarding the national economy.
“Perpetrators of this illegal trans-border fuel smuggling are saboteurs that must be stopped as they don’t mean well for the country.” Ejibunu said.
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He decried a situation in which the Federal Government spends vast sums of money subsidizing fuel for the benefit of Nigerians, but a few elements smuggle it for personal gain.
“The seizure is the result of serious intelligence,” said Acting Controller Ejibunu.
Smuggling petrol
“We have been monitoring them since last week, and the information came to me that some people are using sacks to smuggle petroleum products out of Nigeria.”
He stated that the unit was on the lookout and that their cup had become full.
“For someone to think that instead of carrying drums like the ones we intercepted a few days ago from Ayegun border where they brought in about 60 drums containing PMS about to be moved from Nigeria and hid them in a bush; it was where they went to secure trucks that we swooped on them.
“The only difference in this new one is that they used sacks to conceal the product and put them close to a creek from where they will be ferried out.
“The implications In the economy are multifaceted, in the sense that firstly, our country subsidized petroleum products for us for our own use, yet some recalcitrant people who believe that that is the way they can always survive still believe it is to shortchange the nation as well.
“And it is criminal, because it is our collective patrimony, yet some people now believe that they can smuggle it to make gains.
“When my men got there at exactly 1330hrs, they were shot at with Dane guns.
“And you know that there is a difference between Dane guns, pump action guns, and assault rifles like AK-47.
“They fired their Dane guns a few times and ran away, and since it was their terrain, they knew all the nooks and crannies to use for escape.
“We took possession because I moved in with 18 Hilux vehicles loaded with officers who were armed to the teeth because I was ready and knew what could come up.”
He further explains that “We have not slept; we went there this morning to see what we apprehended, and it was massive.
“The implications on the economy are multifaceted, in the sense that firstly, subsidized petroleum products for us for our own use, yet some recalcitrant people who believe that that is the way they can always survive still believe it is to shortchange the nation as well.
“And it is criminal, because it is our collective patrimony, yet some people now believe that they can smuggle it to make a gain”.
Sometime in March, the unit whose sole mandate is to monitor illegal imports and exports across the southwest zone established a team with the sole responsibility of monitoring stolen and diverted petroleum products making their way out of the country via the southwest border.
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