This is even as the service said it has given the agents in charge of the consignment 30 days to provide the End User Certificates or risk forfeiture of the items to the Federal Government.
It will be recalled that Senator Dino Melaye had accused Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State of importing restricted security gadgets without obtaining the End User Certificate from the NSA, as the law demands.
Speaking to Saturday Tribune on Friday, spokesman of the Customs, Joseph Attah explained that the seized items were still in the custody of the Customs.
According to Attah, “Yes, we intercepted some dangerous military hardware and they are in our custody because there were no End User Certificates available as of the time of interception.
“We have, however, given the clearing agent 30 days to provide the End User Certificate or risk forfeiture of the items.”
When asked to confirm the ownership of the consignment, Attah declined, stating that Customs’ responsibility is to forestall the influx of dangerous imports into the country.
A Customs officer told an online newsdpaper, Freedom Online, on Friday, in Abuja, that a senior official of the agency used to import the goods has been detained.
The operational address of the company is at Ajao Estate, Lagos.
He said officials of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and the Department of State Service (DSS) “have already inspected the 39 cartons used for the importation at the FCT Command of NCS, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.”
The source, according to Freedom Online, said military wares seized have been moved “to a safer place.”
The Batch No of the goods is C843 brought into the country by a cargo aircraft with registered number 237/2018.
The Airway Bill Number is 176-89341114.
It is believed that the goods were imported from one of the European countries.
The Detention Notice (No 08854) reads: “You are hereby informed that the goods covered in the schedule below are detained”.
The company was asked to “produce additional clearance documents”.
The Detention Notice was sequel to a Certificate of Examination on the goods by a Chief Superintendent of Customs (CSC), M.K. Usman.
He declared in the certificate: “I, Usman M.K., hereby certify that I have identified, opened and examined physically the goods on AW8 No 176-89341114.
“They include 100 pieces of military camouflage, 26 pieces of military camouflage jungle boots, 20 pieces of plastic knives, 24 pieces of black bullet proof vests, 28 black boxing gloves, 26 pieces of arctic hunter bags, 40 pieces of training mats, 20 pieces of black batons, 100 pieces of black T-shirts, 31 pieces of protective glasses, 25 pieces of black sunglasses and 29 pieces of black uniform belts”.
On Thursday, Senator Melaye had drawn the attention of the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly to the importation, allegedly by Bello.
An Ad-hoc committee was immediately set up by the Senate, headed by Senator James Manager, to investigate the allegation.
After the session, Manager and other members of the committee including Senators Adeola Olamilekan Yayi, Kabir Marafa, Jeremiah Useni, Chukwuka Utazi and Mathew Urhoghide, moved to the Customs office to check the 39 boxes containing the goods.
Senior Customs officers assisted the senators during the examination of the boxes.
Freedom Online reported that the Presidency has directed DMI and the DSS to also investigate some governors believed to be importing military and security wares “to be used for the 2019 elections”.
The Kogi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday raised the alarm over the interception of military hardwares allegedly imported by the state governor, into the country, saying this would not help the governor’s election in 2019.
The party said the interception of military wares allegedly imported by Bello had vindicated its position that the governor, having noticed his rejection by the people, was resorting to extreme violence.
A statement by the Director of Research and Documentation of the party, Dickson Achadu, said the interception of the military uniform and other hardwares was a divine intervention, as the people of the state do not deserve to be visited with violence by an “appointed governor”.
While noting that Bello since assumption of office has witnessed the death of workers who went through unending screening exercises without pay, the party said never had suffering and hardship been this witnessed in the history of the state.
The statement lamented attempt by the government to militarise the forthcoming election, stressing that the desperation to import military wares was borne out of fear of rejection by the people because the administration had inflicted pains on the citizenry.
The PDP urged the people to remain vigilant and be ready to avail security agencies of any strange action by the government to cause mayhem in any part of the state.
The party said, “With defeat staring the present administration on the face, we expect more act of desperation from the sinking government, but described its action to import military ware as the lowest moment it has attained.
The PDP also want security agencies to unravel the motives behind the arms importation in a country where fighting insurgency and other crimes has become a source of worry, the recent interception may well help unravel more motives than the eye can see”.
However, the state government could not react to the allegation as government officials contacted said they were not in a position to speak on the issue.
The director general, bureau of information and grassroots, Abdulkareem Abdulmalik, directed Saturday Tribune to the special adviser to the governor on security matters, Jerry Omodara.
When contacted, Omodara said he was not the spokesperson to the governor and the government. He said that the right person to speak on the allegation was the director general, media and publicity, Kingsley Fanwo.
But all calls to Fanwo’s telephone line were not picked, while sms messages also sent to his mobile phone were not replied.
ALSO READ: PDP to Bello: Military wares won’t stop your defeat in 2019
Reacting to the development, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State said the authorities should simply investigate those they have been fingered.
Fayose, who spoke through his special assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said “they should investigate the one they have seen,” adding “you can’t catch a thief, let the thief go and then begin to look for some other thieves in some places to prosecute.”
On whether the Fayose government is under any form of investigation, especially in that regard, Olayinka said “Governor Fayose is not in any way doing anything illegal in the build up to the election in the state and he is not under any form of investigation.”
Reacting to whether there was stockpiling of arms, he said “we’re not doing anything like that,” saying “the government of Ekiti is the government of the people. Governor Fayose is about the freest governor in the country, his people love him and he loves his people.”
He said rather than stockpile arms and create fear, “we’re preparing for the election. Even if the election holds today, we are ready. As a matter of fact, matters have gone beyond whether the APC would be defeated in the election or not. What we are aiming at is to defeat them in the few wards they won in the last election.
“We defeated them in the 16 local government areas of the state. They managed to win some wards, but now we want to defeat them even in those wards they won to drive home the fact that APC is not popular in Ekiti State.”
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