Tag: KOGI

THE Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) recently confiscated some security items allegedly imported by Kogi State government and flown in through the Abuja International Airport. No end-user certificate accompanied the consignment, though the clearing agent insisted he had one in his possession. Having identified the importer through the clearing agent, the Service gave them a one-month ultimatum to produce the end-user certificate from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA). Should it take so long to produce a document they claimed was in their possession? Kogi State will naturally hope that by their fawning relationship with the presidency, that certificate would be procured within the time frame given them by the generous Customs. But whether the ultimatum and the claims of the agent explain and justify the importation of restricted security items without the requisite end-user certificate in the first instance is not clear. In addition, both the Customs and the NSA will have to convince themselves that by their lenient handling of this delicate matter, other importers with a predilection for skirting the boundaries and confines of the law would not take to deliberate and affronting racketeering.

According to the Customs, the agent claimed to be in possession of the end-user certificate, and in addition alleged that the Kogi State government was the client/importer. The state has not officially reacted. The items unlawfully imported, according to reports, include military camouflage, camouflage jungle boots, plastic knives, black bullet proof vests, black boxing gloves, arctic hunter bags, training mats, black batons, black T-shirts, protective glasses, black sunglasses and black uniform belts. Against the background of fears that the state government might be trying to raise a squad of militant enforcers for the next elections, the importation of security items in flagrant contravention of importation rules may indicate the terrible dangers the state is being exposed to.

The Kogi State government knows nothing about the law or democracy, and it cares nothing for the great values and virtues that underpin decent and civilised society. Its legislature has become a rubber stamp, the labour unions are overwhelmed, and civil society hardly exists. Both the ruling party and the federal government have turned a blind eye to the state government’s repeated infractions and constitutional illegalities, with the governor himself a product of brazen affront to the law and constitution. By yielding continually to the state’s chicaneries, the federal government, not to say the misdirected All Progressives Congress (APC), may unwittingly be laying the foundation for lawlessness and arbitrariness in Kogi.

The Customs assert that investigations into the unlawful importation of the security items are progressing. (But another government agency, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), last May promised to prosecute Governor Yahaya Bello for double voter card registration only to turn round to perfect his registration and issue him a temporary voter card in February. In Nigeria, black is not always black). Meanwhile, the Customs declined to arrest the agent, and the importer is reportedly making strenuous efforts to procure the end-user certificate. No one knows what the bright minds in Abuja are capable of, or how cynically they regard and respond to the rule of law. But if both the Customs and the NSA validate Kogi’s alleged importation of security items, considering that the state has become reckless, lawless and anti-democratic, they must not look for other explanations if democracy and the Fourth Republic wobble very badly.

The Customs may not be best placed to investigate why Kogi State allegedly needs those security items. But the NSA and the Department of State Service (DSS) should feel obligated to find out why those items were imported and for what purpose. They must take care to get to the bottom of the matter, for Kogi State officials are accomplished liars who treat truth and facts contemptuously. The situation in Kogi is dire, for its government is leading that state to collapse. Consider, for instance, its approach to the cattle grazing controversy, especially its forwardness and abominable lack of proaction. Now with the attacks on Dekina and Omala Local Government Areas of the state by herdsmen, during which some 25 people were said to have been killed and many villages sacked, the state is reaping the fruits of the governor’s brashness.

It is not certain that the House of Representatives’ probe of the illegal importation of security items allegedly by Kogi will be accomplished with the urgency it demands, but all things considered, the state appears to be primed in the coming months for violence and sundry crises. The ruling party of course specialises in fomenting discord; just as it it has no talent in managing it. Meanwhile, the presidency has not shown the neutrality expected of it. On its own, the Customs have done well to bring the issue into the open, even though they have not taken far-reaching steps to handle the matter with the aplomb that is consistent with their powers. Hopefully, instead of waffling, the NSA will not only decline to issue the end-user certificate, he will, together with other security agencies, find out whether the law had not been flouted and by whom.