In the last two years, the (WMC) of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) recorded huge seizures of Cannabis Sativa, smuggled into the country through the marine area.
Nigeria’s Sunday Vanguard reported that over 80 percent of the Cannabis seized by WMC came from Ghana and were intercepted by officers on a tip off and security network of the Command at strategic areas of operations.
For instance, the Command intercepted Cannabis estimated at over N250million along Badagry axis, smuggled into Nigeria from Ghana, recently. To ensure efficiency in their operations, the new Customs Area Controller (CAC) of WMC, Comptroller Sarkin-Kebbi Mustapha, has stepped up patrol surveillance at the creeks within their area of coverage at Apapa, which led to massive seizures of rice and petroleum products recently.
According to him, “WMC is purely an enforcement unit and we have the mandate to fully implement government’s trade policies to suppress smuggling for our local industries to thrive. The land borders are now too hot for smugglers, so they have moved their illegal activities to the waterways and the creeks, and we are battled ready to curtail them. It is the desire of WMC to ensure that the waterways are safe from the activities of nefarious business men and women, thereby engendering the security of our country while smuggling is reduced to the barest minimum”.
