The PTML Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Wednesday displayed intercepted bale of army camouflage uniform suspected to have been imported illegally into the country.
It also paraded a suspect who was arrested in connection with the seizures.
The Customs Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Folorunsho Adegoke, who paraded the suspect alongside the seizures said the military camouflage which was concealed in a Volkswagen vehicle, was discovered during routine physical examination by operatives of the command.
He gave the suspect’s name as Emmanuel Eko who claimed to be serving in the British Army.
According to him,“we found in a bus something un-customs. It is a practice that where we have military wears, they are normally imported by military officers and they will write letter to our headquarters to that effect. But in this instance, we have a situation where an individual importer whose name he gave as Emmanuel Eko who claimed to be serving with the British Army but has a Nigerian passport and also a British Army ID card. When you look at the security challenges we have in the country, this can be used to commit one havoc or the other because these terrorists dress like soldiers.”
Adegoke disclosed that the importer did not seek required authorization from the Office of the National Security before importing the military wears.
He also said in view of the security challenges confronting the country, measures in ensuring that effective physical examination and intelligence gathering are carried out, must be put in place to check security risks.
The seized items include military wears, berets, jackets, boots, bags and helmets, communication gadgets amongst others.
The suspect was later handed over to the men of the State Security Service (SSS) who would take over from where the customs stopped as according to him, the command had no power to keep the suspect beyond the 48 hours limit prescribed by the law.
He hinted that the customs was handing over the suspect and the seized items to the SSS as against the police which ordinarily should have taken custody of the suspect and the items because no arms and ammunition was found on the import.
On his part, the suspect said he brought the items into the country on the request of some serving Nigerian Army operatives whom he said eventually come forward to claim same.
He said “I told them the uniforms are for soldiers and the soldiers have arrived here to claim the uniforms”.
