Category: Saturday Magazine

THE quest by smugglers to sustain their illegal business of smuggling goods from Benin Republic and other neighbouring West African countries into Nigeria may have finally shifted from land to waterways. In the face of the daunting challenges posed by men of the Nigerian Customs Service and the police to their nefarious activities on land, findings revealed that most of the smugglers have resorted to ferrying their goods on rivers that link Seme in Benin Republic from Lagos and Ogun States in order to reduce the cost of conveying their goods on land where they pay heavily to corrupt Customs officials or guard against the risk of losing their entire goods to the security operatives. Visits to some of the rivers revealed that the volume of goods, especially rice being smuggled into the country through the waterways tripled the quantity that was being smuggled in previously. A source close to one of the rivers told The Nation that the development is as a result of the beckoning Christmas and New Year festivities. The source added that the smugglers may have increased the quantity of food items they are smuggling into the country in anticipation of possible food shortage that may arise from the destruction of many farmlands in the country by floods. “The quantity of goods, especially rice being smuggled into the country has drastically increased because of the Yuletide season. Most of the smugglers are highly speculative. Most of the goods coming in now may not be taken to the market immediately. Some of them would be hoarded in anticipation of possible food shortage next year because of the flood that washed off many farmlands this year. If it happens the way they have conjectured, they would sell at higher prices and make high profits,” the source said. The Rice Millers, Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria (RIMIDAN) recently raised the alarm on the volume of the country’s losses to smuggling. According to RIMIDAN, Nigeria loses N36.7 billion yearly to rice smuggling and wastes in local rice processing. On smuggling and duty evasion, it said N20.4 billion was lost yearly, adding that there is N16.3 billion in unpaid taxes by local processors, whose investments have been crippled by smugglers. In spite of the lamentation of RIMIDAN and the huge losses the country suffers in other areas of the economy as a result of their unwholesome activities, the business seem to be expanding and thriving more than ever before on the waters. The smugglers seem to be unperturbed by the destructive effect of their activities on the nation’s economy. Personal gains to them, is more important than the hemorrhage the economy is currently suffering from as a result of their activities. “From the days of our forefathers, the wealth of Nigeria has suffered violence and only the violent can take it by force’ is a twisted biblical saying commonly heard among them. At the point of loading their ships in Seme, the smugglers’ eyes literary drips of blood and as they set out on the win or lose business journey. This intimidating countenance quickly changes immediately they arrive at their various destinations. On arrival at one of their berthing points at Isashi, the smugglers heaved a sigh of relief. One of them grabbed a bottle of whiskey, opened it and poured its content into the river as a libation and prayed for more blessing. The goods which range from bales of clothes, gallons of vegetable oil, bags of rice and other edibles often berth at Ere, a community along Ado, a surburb of Ogun State. From there, they are moved on land to neighbouring riverine communities like Igbesa, Agbaara, in Ogun State and Isashi and Ishuti area of Igando in Lagos State for onward delivery to various markets. Before the goods arrive at the riverine areas, the smugglers would send information to bus and van drivers to be available at the riverside to convey the goods to their various customers. Idle youths in the riverine communities are readily on hand to offload the smuggled goods into waiting vehicles. Checks revealed that these idle youths always look forward to when the goods would arrive the river because of the money they make from doing the job. A canoe, for instance, carries an average of 200 bags of rice. One of the youths told our correspondent that they are paid an average of N50 to carry a bag of rice from the canoe to the waiting buses. On a good day, he said they could begin loading goods from morning till about 11pm. One of the smugglers who identified himself as ‘Small’, told our correspondent in an informal chat that he took to smuggling when he searched for a means of livelihood to no avail. He said he does not see anything that is morally wrong in the business because it does not take anything from anybody. He said: “Man must survive my brother. Since we cannot get subsidy money to supply fuel or use biro to steal money like people in government, can’t we eke out a living for ourselves? I took to smuggling business after several years of combing the street for a means of livelihood. I started as an apprentice to somebody after which I raised money to start my own. It is not an easy business, but it is better than armed robbery, kidnapping or 419 because we take what belongs to another person. Instead of seeing us as criminals we should be seen as helpers of the people because we make life better for the people by selling things to them at cheaper prices than they would ordinarily get it in the open market. “The people in government don’t want the poor to survive. It does not matter to them if we are dead or suffering. When I was younger, I had always heard of people stealing from the national cake and eating it alone. If they would not drop the crumbs of the national cake for ghetto man to eat, will ghetto man not find a way for himself? Whether they like it or not, ghetto man must survive by fire or by force.” Another smuggler who gave his name as James, said the trend in smuggling goods through waterways was because of the problems they encounter with men of the Nigerian Customs and the police when carrying goods on land. Where there is a will, he said there must always be a way. “Transporting goods on river did not start today. It started long ago but it seems to be the in-thing now. Before now, we could settle Customs and police with relatively good sum of money and carry our goods without any problem. But as time went on, their mouths became too wide that they started asking far above what we even make as profits at the end of the day. Where you fail to part with the sum they ask for, they would seize your goods and make you suffer terrible losses that you may never recover from in life. We have many people who had either died or developed terminal diseases like stroke after their goods were seized for failing to part with the money they were asked. “When we saw that the relationship was not what it used to be, we created an alternative route to transport goods on land. It is easier to track us on land but it is not easy to do so on water. We still settle a little bit to get our goods down here but it can never be compared to transporting them on land where you are likely to meet about ten Customs checkpoints and five or seven police checkpoints on the road. This is Nigeria, you must understand. You cannot remain on a spot to watch the masquerade performance. You have to move around. When one road blocks, another must surely open,” he said. The activities of the smugglers have, however, been generating serious concerns in some of the riverine communities. In some of the areas, their activities have made most of the youths in the area to abandon their education. A resident of Agbaara who gave his name as Pastor Taiwo lamented that most of the youths in the area have found working with smugglers an easy way of staving off hardship. He said: “It is unfortunate that most of the parents do not have the power to prevent their children from helping the smugglers. Some of them even remind their children to go to the rivers to assist them because they cannot fend for their children. Many of them have long abandoned their studies because they are already making money. If you try to advise them, they will tell you that it is money that they and others in school are looking for. They would even tell you of many jobless graduates that come to them for money. The truth is that many of them grow from assisting them to offload goods to becoming smugglers themselves. Government must do something to check this. Government must provide an alternative for both the smugglers and the children that are assisting them.” A highly placed resident of Oto Awori, along Lagos Badagry expressway spoke on anonymity. He told The Nation that the smugglers were always making use of the rivers in the area until the traditional ruler clamped down on their activities because they were affecting the psyche of the youths in the area. But his claim was denied by Chief Samson Obanla, the Akogun of Oto Awori who spoke in the absence of the king of the community, His Royal Majesty, Oba Josiah Ilemobale Aina, the Oloto of Oto of Awori Kingdom. He said: “Smugglers have never used our water for transporting their goods because we have a Customs’ checkpoint right here. Their boat or canoe can never berth here because the moment it berths here, the men of the Customs Service would arrest them. The only thing that happens here is that sometimes when the Customs are pursing the smugglers on land, they could run into our town. But the Oba long instructed our people to arrest and handover such smugglers that run into the community to either the Customs or the police. He has warned our people not to harbour them for any reasons. “We got tough on them after they killed one of our people in the course of trying to escape from the Customs. It is also not true that our people, especially the youths abandoned their education to work with smugglers. Our people are educated. We have Adeniran Ogunsanya Colleage of Education right here and also have Lagos State University very close to us. These are the institutions that our people attend. There may be other communities where the youths have abandoned their studies to be assisting smugglers but it is not in our community.” A resident of Odo, a sleepy community along Igando, a surburb of Lagos, who identified himself as Taiwo bemoaned the hijack of the river by smugglers. He said that their activities have further encouraged all manners of touts to come to the area. “This area used to be one of the most peaceful communities in Lagos State until smugglers began to use it to do ungodly businesses. It is a new site that is just witnessing gradual development. Aside from the major road that is still not tarred, we have no other way of coming in and going out of this environment apart from this river that is a gift of nature to us. “The river connects other communities here in Lagos and part of Ogun State. For example, you can move from here to Ayobo and Iyana Ipaja areas without going through the stress of going back to Igando and travelling a long distance through the expressway to get to either Iyana Ipaja or Ayobo. You can also get to Agbara from here without going back to the expressway. Apart from these communities in Lagos State, you can travel to Ogun State on this river because it links other rivers in Kotowu and Igbesa. It is very cheap and faster to go to all these places from here and that is of immense benefit to us. Besides, it creates a mini employment for both the youths and the women because some of them now use canoes as a means of transporting people while the women sell fruit and food items to people travelling on the river. “The situation has really changed from what it used to be because smugglers have latched onto the opportunity and made the whole area unsafe for everybody. Never in our imagination did we think that the river would be converted to an escape route for smugglers. On several occasions, we have seen smugglers move their goods from Agbara and other parts of the river through this area. Nobody gets close to them. Immediately they get here, they begin to off load their goods. At times, they would be shooting into the air to scare people away. This is unhealthy for a new community like ours because it puts fears in the minds of the people. “Another problem that the presence of the smugglers has created in the community is that it encouraged area boys to make this place their abode. Before the smugglers started passing through this community, we never had area boys in our midst. But since they observed that smugglers use here as their route, they have stormed here in their numbers. I guess they are here for the purpose demanding for settlement from the smugglers. When you get to the sawmill beside the river, especially on weekends and Sundays, you will find these hoodlums smoking Indian hemp and other hard drugs and the very moment you begin to see young men engaging in such unholy lifestyle in any community, then you can be certain that such area is not a safe place to live in,” he said. Tunde, a middle aged man that paddles one of the canoes, told our man he does not carry either smugglers or anybody that is into shady deals. He, however, said that the menace of smuggling on the river has increased drastically. “It is true that smugglers pass through this place when carrying their goods to neighbouring communities, but it seems to be on the increase recently. Previously, it was a weekly thing but it has reduced now. “This river was ordinarily meant for people going to neighbouring communities, but as time went on, it became an exit point for miscreants of all sorts. The first time we experienced their activities here, it was very strange to all of us and it was as if war broke out in the community. Everybody ran for safety and at the end, many people sustained serious injuries. At times, these miscreants beat up people and inflict severe injuries on them if they refuse to give them the attention they want. We would appreciate if the government could flush them out totally so that we can continue to enjoy the peace that was the order of the day in the community some years ago. “As a transporter, I have never carried any of such people because it is against my Christian belief. I would rather manage the little I get than compromise my belief. If the smugglers are doing the right thing, they would never resort to carrying the goods in covert manners. They have chosen this area simply because they do not want to pay whatever money the Nigerian Customs would ask them to pay. As a Christian and believer in the project called Nigeria, I will not partake in anything that would continue to pull the country backward,” he submitted. Another resident who gave his name as Isaac decried the activities of the smugglers on the river. He opined that their activities are capable of endangering the lives of innocent residents that move about on the river. He feared that the menace of the smugglers may be a bad influence on the young ones in the community. The hoodlums, according to him, may have resorted to conveying their booty through the river to avoid falling into the hands of security men on the road. “I have never been comfortable since I found that smugglers make use of this river to carry their goods because it is unsafe for one to live anywhere close to where they operate frequently. Smugglers could be brutal, especially if anything obstructs their movements. “Another fear that I have about this development is that these hoodlums may gradually be influencing our children negatively. If their activities continue unchecked, some of the children in this community may begin to see what they are doing as the right thing and team up with them. Reacting, Uche Ejesieme, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Customs Service Ikeja, said it is untrue that smugglers have been having a field day at the waterways. He averred that the Nigerian Customs Service has rather succeeded in frustrating the smugglers and checkmating their activities. He said: “It is not true that smugglers are bombarding the waterways with goods and having a field day. Their activities have rather reduced drastically as a result of our heightened anti-smuggling exploits. We have continued to make mince meat of their efforts. For example, we have made several seizures on the waterways and most recently we have interrupted a large quantity of contraband goods at the water ways. As a testament to my claims, the Federal Operations Unit Zone A, has recorded a total of 2,459 seizures of various contraband goods between January and November this year with a duty value of N999,495,288. These claims could be empirically verified. We also arrested 254 suspects during the same period. While we have successfully caged most of them, the recalcitrant ones have not given up, but they have continued to have their goods seized by our men. Let them continue to bring in the goods, we would also continue to seize them. We will continue to do so until they stop.” Continuing he said: “In our efforts to checkmate smuggling activities through the waterways, the Federal Operations Unit Zone A has put modalities in place through the deployment of intelligence gathering and collaboration between the Western Marine Command and the Seme Command. “We have intensified our anti-smuggling campaign at the waterways and have been recording spectacular seizures as a result of our activities. The comptroller, Federal Operations Units Zone A, Comptroller Dan Ugo has put every officer on their toes, especially during this last quarter of the year when we anticipate increased trading activities. He has been working tirelessly to ensure full compliance with the CGC’s zero tolerance for importation of all types of contraband goods. We hold weekly meetings at the instance of the Comptroller to identify flashpoints that need to be closely monitored. These days Customs work as a team, irrespective of your command and we also share intelligence with commands in the zone.” On the allegations that men of the Service aid the activities of smugglers by collecting bribes, he said: ”I am not aware of that, but the truth is that there would always be bad eggs in any organisation but I can tell you categorically that the Service and the Unit will not spare anybody who is found wanting.