Nigeria Customs Service has identified dearth of necessary working equipment and inadequate incentives to customs personnel as factors responsible for its inability to stem the flow of illegal weapons into the country.
Damgaiadinga Aminu Abubakar, a Deputy Comptroller, who appeared before House of Representatives on Customs and Excise in Abuja weekend, mentioned inadequate incentives for personnel, lack of operational vehicles, fast moving boats, cutting-edge technology and advanced scanning machines at airports, seaports and border points as factors inhibiting the effectiveness of the service.
Abubakar, who represented the Comptroller- General of Customs, Hameed Ali, further lamented that there were 1,100 illegal entry points into the country only 97 were approved border posts.
He said 2,671 pump action rifles had been seized from January 2017 to date, warning that the Customs personnel found culpable in the import of 661 pump action rifles had been dismissed from service and handed over to the Department of State Services for prosecution.
The Customs boss equally noted that hostilities by the border communities formed part of the factors militating against the service.
He said there was need for more funds to be voted into to the Service in a timely manner to allow for operational activities.
The Chairman of the Committee, Biodun Faleke (APC Lagos), however, took the DSS to task over vigilante groups being armed by state governments with pump action rifles.
According to him, the DSS should be more proactive in saving the citizens from the abuse of arms by governors and ensure that whatever arms that were procured were properly acquired to avoid abuse.
The House of Representatives had on Wednesday, September 27, 2017, mandated its Committees on Customs and Excise to invite the Nigeria Customs Service and Director of State Services to brief the House on comprehensive plans to rid the country of the menace of small arms and light weapons.
