Customs Recovers a Large Amount of Ammunition in Ogun State

Operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service have recovered a large amount of ammunition in Ogun State, near Nigeria’s border with Benin Republic.

4,875 rounds of red star live cartridges were found in bags of smuggled rice that were abandoned on a bush path by smugglers along Palace-Ayetoro Road in Imeko Afon.

The Comptroller of Ogun State One Customs Command, Ahmad Shuaib, announced the major seizure to newsmen at the Idiroko headquarters of the command on Wednesday.

He said 975 of the cartridges were concealed in five bags of smuggled rice recovered by customs patrol during an intelligence-based operation last Monday midnight.

The comptroller said the bags of rice with live cartridges were evacuated by customs operatives without any intervention from those who kept them in the bush path.

The statement reads, “We have been on the trail of the ammunition for about a week.

Fortunately, at 0005hrs of the day, we got an intel that the five bags of foreign parboiled rice containing live cartridges of red star ammunition had been carefully hidden in a bush path along the Palace/Ayetoro Road, in the Imeko Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State.

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Our operatives went to the spot and evacuated the five bags of rice without any encounter.

“The bags of rice were suspected because of the unusual threading and sewing of the sacks. This quickly aroused the suspicion of our operatives leading to their opening for proper examination at the Border station.

“During the examination, about 975 rounds of red star live cartridges were found to have been ingeniously concealed in the bags. We have intensified efforts at tracking down the perpetrators of this nefarious act for them to be brought to justice.

“We recognize the potential danger of arms and ammunition trafficking which is life-threatening. We shall not renege in our efforts to combat smuggling activities in its entirety”.

Shuaibu said the consequences of unchecked smuggling of arms and ammunition are severe, ranging from the empowerment of criminal organizations to escalating crisis and compromise of national security.

“For these reasons, we will not relent nor compromise waging war against smuggling of unlawful arms and ammunition in building a safe and stable nation,”