The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, recently, intercepted Tramadol weighing 6,182kg at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Cargo Section, Abuja.
According to information available to Primetime Reporters, the consignment was intercepted at the Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited, SAHCOL bonded warehouse with Limark Nigeria Limited as the consignee while Prince Yakubu Atokolo, the Interim Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Abuja Airport chapter and Alhaji Ibrahim Akanbi Umar, the immediate past Chairman, ANLCA Abuja Airport chapter, were alleged to be the agents.
According to an eyewitness who does not want her name in print because she was not authorized to speak on the matter, the agents, Atokolo and Umar would have taken delivery of the illicit consignment during the Salah holiday but for the insistence of some officials of the Nigeria Customs Service who resisted them.
The source further revealed that the duo having failed to lobby the customs officials from releasing the consignment of Tramadol to them during the Salah holiday, allegedly resorted to begging the Service not to disclose nor mention their names in relation to the seizure.
“They have been begging the customs not mention their names. They are on the run but it’s his (Atokolo’s) company name that they used to import the Tramadol. They are even the one negotiating with the Customs for a common ground.
“Some people said that was how they have been doing it since. He (Atokolo) launched one motor before fasting and he has been boasting to the people that some of his motors were on their way to Nigeria.
“But when he discovered that the thing has escalated, he begged them not to mention his name. He is in the run now”, the source said.
However, Primetime Reporters gathered that the consignment was on Monday handed over to the officials of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA by the officials of the Nigeria Customs Service.
When contacted, one of the accused and the immediate past Chairman of ANLCA, Abuja Airport chapter, Alhaji Ibrahim Akanbi Umar denied any knowledge of the said consignment adding that he had nothing to do with it.
According to him, “I don’t know anything about the seizure. Even, on the day they said that they came to the warehouse, I was in Lagos. I don’t even know anything about what you are talking about.
“You see, whatever they are trying to frame, they should frame it well. So, I don’t know anything about Tramadol, that very day they said that they are doing the thing there, I can even send you a picture of the work I came for in Lagos, one aircraft engine that I came to clear there. It is from here that I am hearing all this things.
“How can I relate with the work and I will not be there? It is not possible! They just know what they are framing, I don’t know what they are looking for from me. I don’t know anything about it, I am free.”
Asked what he has done since he learnt about the allegation so as to clear his name, Umar said, “When you don’t have anything to do with something, which evidence do they have against me? I have not one day come to do the job, I am not an agent that will do anything, I have not been doing pharmaceutical jobs. I have not been doing it. I don’t know about it anywhere.”
He disowned the license associated with the illicit import saying that he was not aware of the owner of the license even as he dissociated himself from the license.
On what he is going to do with the allegation, he said, “My brother, what do you want me to say? When they are trying to frame something that is not feasible, what do you want me to do? I have nothing to say. You know there is politics in that area, I don’t know why they are throwing up my name. Maybe because I am supporting the interim Chairman there. Maybe it is because of that they are trying to find a way to rope me in and put wahala on my head. But I know that God is there. You know that I cannot support that. It has not been happening in Abuja airport here.”
On the allegation that he and the interim Chairman had gone into hiding, the immediate past Chairman said, “Even yesterday (Tuesday), I still did work at the warehouse as I returned. Who said that I am running? I even cleared work yesterday at the warehouse. They are just lying up and down.”
Meanwhile, all efforts made by our correspondent to get the interim Chairman, Prince Yakubu Atokolo to react to the allegation proved abortive as his phone was switched off since yesterday up to the time of filing this report this morning.
However, a man who simply identified himself as Barr. Tunde but who True caller identified as Ogheneochukome Owhen contacted our correspondent explaining that he was calling on behalf of his client, Prince Yakubu Atokolo.
His words, “Alhaji Atokolo gave me your number and said that I should reach out to you and I have sent him a message that he should call me immediately his phone comes up.
“I want to advise that having known the sensitivity of this matter, I will advise that you balance the story before releasing it please so as to avoid defamation.
“I have been privileged to get the customs press release, and I have seen that the customs did not indict him neither was he mentioned in any form. So, please, I will like you to look at it properly before releasing any information.
“When they told me a journalist is involved, I told them it is important I talk to the journalist on behalf of my client because I understand that the entire matter is a political issue.”
When asked to tell Atokolo to call our correspondent and present his own side of the matter for the public to judge for themselves, he said, “I will tell him to call you once he comes on. He will definitely call you, he is not running away.
“But I am equally trying to make you understand that as an investigative journalist, you should make your findings properly too. You should understand that the agency saddled with the responsibility of dictating whether a commodity is a contraband or not is the Nigeria Customs and the Nigeria Customs in this instance, has come out to issue a disclaimer that the commodity in question has not link with Atokolo. So, I want us to handle this matter with caution.”
Meanwhile, attempts by our correspondent to reach the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS did not yield any fruit as the phone number of the command’s Public Relations Officer was not reachable as at the time of filing this report.
Atokolo was one of the Chairmanship contender for the Abuja Airport chapter during the recently concluded chapter elections of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA which ended in a stalemate due to some personal interest of some of the national officers of the association leading to his appointment as the interim chapter Chairman of the chapter.
Photo: A cross-section of the seized Tramadol at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja by the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS.
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