Funso OLOJO, Editor 

At Nigeria’s south-western border with the Republic of Benin, the battle against smuggling is no longer merely about intercepting bags of rice, petroleum products or second-hand clothing.

Increasingly, it is a battle over the survival of local industries, food security, public health, legitimate trade, national revenue and, ultimately, Nigeria’s economic security.

At the centre of that battle is the Ogun I Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Idiroko, where Deputy Comptroller Olukayode Oladapo Afeni, the Acting Customs Area Controller, has presided over an increasingly aggressive enforcement campaign.

The numbers tell part of the story.

Under Afeni, the Command’s seizure diary has expanded from narcotics and prohibited food products to petroleum products, tyres, pharmaceuticals, clothing, sugar, fertiliser and even antiquities and wildlife.

But perhaps more significant than the sheer volume of seizures is the philosophy emerging behind them: make the border hostile to illicit trade while making it more accessible to legitimate commerce.

That approach dovetails with the broader economic direction of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, which has consistently presented the Renewed Hope agenda as a programme aimed at strengthening domestic production, protecting investment, improving revenue and securing Nigeria’s economic space.

At Ogun I, those objectives are increasingly being translated into frontline enforcement.

THE AUGUST SCORECARD: ₦3.574 BILLION IN ONE ENFORCEMENT WINDOW

The latest chapter in Afeni’s seizure diary is particularly revealing.
Between June 24 and August 13, 2026, the Ogun I Command intercepted prohibited goods with a combined Duty Paid Value of ₦3,574,435,248.08.

Among the most striking seizures were 6,035 parcels of Ghana Loud/Indica, 2,339 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 70 cartons of basmati rice, 30 bags of foreign sugar, 11,450 litres of Premium Motor Spirit in kegs, another 1,750 litres of PMS in drums and 30 kegs of diesel.

The inventory also included 100 bags of fertiliser, 67 bales of second-hand clothing, 2,674 pieces of new shorts and trousers, 3,760 pieces of new tops, 85 fire extinguishers, 480 cartons of Pure Haven drinks, cosmetics, oats, hair accessories, surgical shoes and 127 new purses.

Yet the cannabis seizure stood out.
The 6,035 parcels of Ghana Loud/Indica were formally handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Idiroko Special Command, for further investigation and necessary action.

Afeni subsequently disclosed that from January 2026 to the August briefing, the Command had handed over 32,412 parcels of hard drugs and 92 sacks of raw Cannabis Sativa to the NDLEA Idiroko Special Command.

That statistic provides perhaps the clearest indication of the changing character of smuggling through the Ogun border.

It is no longer simply a question of economic contraband. Increasingly, it is a question of economic and national security.

BEFORE AUGUST CAME ₦4.63 BILLION

The August seizure did not emerge in isolation.
Between April 1 and June 23, 2026, the Command recorded 146 seizures with a cumulative DPV of ₦4,628,591,970.16, while generating ₦259,777,346.89 during the same period.

The revenue figure represented a remarkable 238 per cent increase over the ₦76.81 million recorded during the corresponding period of 2025.

That performance is significant because the Ogun I story under Afeni has not been exclusively about seizure.

There has also been an attempt to combine enforcement, revenue generation and trade facilitation.

The second-quarter seizure list was extensive: 2,807 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 9,482 parcels of Cannabis Sativa, 62 sacks of raw marijuana, 16,525 litres of PMS, 475 litres of diesel, 7,642 pieces of footwear, 2,427 pneumatic tyres, 63 sacks of foreign sugar, 73 bales of second-hand clothing, fertiliser, imported flour, frozen products and pharmaceuticals.

The Command also handed over 6,981 parcels of Cannabis Indica/Ghanaian Loud and 62 sacks of raw marijuana to the NDLEA, while illicit pharmaceutical products, including 77 cartons of Analgin injections containing 138,600 tubes, were transferred to NAFDAC.

In other words, Afeni’s seizure diary is also becoming a diary of inter-agency enforcement.

THE ₦1.35 BILLION CHAPTER

Earlier, between February and March, the Command intercepted prohibited goods valued at approximately ₦1.35 billion.
That operation produced another revealing catalogue of commodities moving through the border environment.

They included 2,539 kegs of vegetable oil, 4,325 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 1,204 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 2,547 parcels of Cannabis Sativa and 13,625 litres of PMS.

Four live pangolins and two antique artefacts believed to date from the 19th century were also intercepted.The vegetable oil seizure was particularly significant.

Customs described it as part of efforts to protect domestic producers from unfair competition created by smuggled goods.

That is where the anti-smuggling campaign intersects directly with the Renewed Hope economic argument.

For every prohibited consignment that enters Nigeria outside the legal import regime, there is potentially a local manufacturer, farmer, investor or legitimate trader being placed at a disadvantage.

The Customs position, therefore, is that enforcement is not simply about confiscation. It is about protecting the productive economy.

THE RICE WAR

Foreign rice has perhaps become the most visible symbol of the economic contest at the Ogun border.

Again and again, rice appears in Afeni’s seizure diary.
In the April-June enforcement period alone, 2,807 bags of foreign parboiled rice were intercepted.

In the latest June-August operation, another 2,339 bags, alongside 70 cartons of basmati rice, were seized.

Afeni’s argument has been straightforward: the illegal inflow of foreign rice undermines local farmers, domestic rice mills and agricultural investors.

That position aligns the border enforcement campaign with the Federal Government’s broader food-security objectives.
The logic is compelling.

If government policy encourages Nigerians to invest in agriculture and local food processing while smugglers simultaneously flood the market with cheaper prohibited imports, then the border becomes the first point at which that economic policy must be defended.

In this sense, a bag of seized foreign rice is no longer merely a Customs seizure. It represents a direct intervention in the competition between illegal imports and domestic production.

WHEN SMUGGLERS FIGHT BACK

Afeni’s seizure diary also records an increasingly dangerous side of the border war.
In one June operation, Customs officers intercepted a truck carrying 113 bags of foreign parboiled rice along the Itori-Wasimi-Abeokuta corridor.

According to the Command, the driver ignored the officers’ signal to stop and attempted to ram the patrol vehicle before he was apprehended.

In another operation, 630 bags of foreign rice were intercepted along the Afamin-Igbogila axis.

Earlier enforcement operations had also involved resistance and attacks on Customs personnel.

This suggests that the enforcement environment around the Ogun border cannot be treated as an ordinary regulatory exercise.
The stakes are evidently high enough for some operators to risk confrontation with armed government personnel.

That makes the Command’s emphasis on intelligence, technology and collaboration with sister agencies particularly important.

FROM PATROLS TO INTELLIGENCE

Perhaps the most important change in the Afeni approach is the apparent movement away from purely reactive patrols towards intelligence-led enforcement.

The August operation, according to Customs, was strengthened by intelligence gathering, technology and collaboration with sister security agencies.

That is significant because border smugglers are themselves adapting.

Their methods increasingly involve concealment, multiple routes, small consignments, night movements, abandoned structures, bush paths and waterways.

The Customs response, therefore, has had to become more sophisticated.

The objective is no longer simply to wait for contraband to appear at a checkpoint. It is to identify the networks, understand the routes and intercept consignments before they reach the Nigerian market.

That represents a fundamentally different model of border enforcement.

BUT THERE IS ANOTHER SIDE TO THE STORY

Interestingly, while the seizure diary has expanded, so has the Command’s legitimate trade profile.

Between April and June, Ogun I facilitated 20,972 metric tonnes of exports with a Free-On-Board value of ₦1.049 billion — a dramatic improvement over the corresponding period of 2025, when no export activity was recorded.

By the August briefing, the Command reported 10,110 metric tonnes of exports, valued at ₦2.594 billion FOB, with white talc, crushed thermal coal and CNG identified among the major export commodities.

That development deserves attention.
A successful border command cannot simply become a wall. It must become a filter.
The illegal must be stopped; the legitimate must be facilitated.

So far, the figures suggest that Ogun I is attempting to pursue both sides of that equation.

THE AFENI EQUATION

The emerging Afeni equation can be reduced to four words:
Enforcement. Revenue. Security. Trade.

The enforcement figures are substantial.
The revenue numbers show improvement.
The volume of narcotics handed over to the NDLEA demonstrates the security dimension.

And the rising export statistics point towards the trade-facilitation component.

The interconnectedness of the four is clear.
A secure border encourages legitimate commerce.

Legitimate commerce generates revenue.
Revenue strengthens government capacity.
And strong enforcement protects legitimate operators from unfair competition.

This is the economic-security argument behind the Ogun I experience.

A COMMAND UNDER PRESSURE

Yet the Afeni record should not be romanticised. It should be understood for what it is.

The persistence of large-scale seizures itself demonstrates that the smuggling economy remains alive.

Every seizure is evidence of successful enforcement, but it is also evidence that somebody remains willing to attempt the illegal movement of the goods.

The continued appearance of rice, petroleum products, narcotics, clothing and other prohibited commodities means that the underlying economic incentives driving smuggling have not disappeared.

Perhaps this is where the larger policy question arises:
Can enforcement alone permanently defeat smuggling?
Probably not.

Border communities need legitimate economic alternatives. Traders need predictable procedures. Exporters need efficient processing. Security agencies need sustained inter-agency cooperation.

And the Customs Service must continue to ensure that legitimate trade is not inadvertently caught in an enforcement net designed for criminal networks.

Afeni’s challenge, therefore, is bigger than producing impressive seizure statistics.
It is to help transform Idiroko from a border corridor defined by illicit commerce into a gateway for legitimate Nigerian production and exports.

THE RENEWED HOPE TEST

The real test of the Renewed Hope agenda at the border is not how many bags of rice Customs can seize.

It is whether those seizures ultimately contribute to a market environment in which Nigerian farmers can produce competitively, local manufacturers can survive, legitimate traders can operate profitably, government can collect its lawful revenue and criminal networks can no longer exploit the border as an economic highway.

By that measure, Afeni’s diary offers an interesting case study.

From the ₦1.35 billion seizure chapter of February-March, to the ₦4.63 billion recorded between April and June, and then the ₦3.574 billion seizure window stretching from June 24 to August 13, the operational tempo has remained high.

And behind those numbers is an increasingly diversified enforcement portfolio: drugs, rice, petroleum products, vegetable oil, tyres, pharmaceuticals, clothing, sugar, fertiliser, wildlife and antiquities.

More importantly, the Command has coupled seizures with drug handovers, inter-agency operations, revenue collection and legitimate export facilitation.

That may ultimately prove more significant than any single seizure.

THE DIARY CONTINUES

As August 2026 closes, one conclusion appears difficult to dispute:
The Ogun I border is no longer being treated merely as a Customs collection point. It is increasingly being managed as an economic-security theatre.

For smugglers, the apparent message from Idiroko is unmistakable: the routes are being watched, the networks are being pursued and the cargoes are increasingly vulnerable to interception.

For legitimate businesses, however, there is another message: the border is expected to become a safer and more predictable channel for lawful commerce.

And for the Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope agenda, that distinction is critical.
Because the ultimate measure of success is not the size of the seizure warehouse.

It is the size of the legitimate economy that emerges when the smuggling economy is squeezed out.
For now, Afeni’s seizure diary is still being written.
And at Idiroko, the pages are filling up fast.

Gloria Odion Maritme reporter

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Apapa Area Command, has smashed its previous single-day revenue record, raking in ₦28.102 billion in just 24 hours on Tuesday, August 18, 2026.

The record ₦28,102,000,914.61 collection is the highest single-day revenue haul ever recorded by the Command, eclipsing the previous benchmark of ₦20.1 billion, achieved in September 2025, shortly after Comptroller Emmanuel Oshoba assumed office as Customs Area Controller.

The latest feat comes barely three weeks after the Command posted another landmark performance, collecting an unprecedented ₦323 billion in July 2026.

The successive records point to a sustained revenue surge at Nigeria’s premier port command, driven by tighter compliance, improved trade facilitation, intelligence-led interventions and greater efficiency in digital Customs processes.

Reacting to the latest milestone, Comptroller Oshoba said the record should not be viewed merely as a collection figure, but as a reflection of Customs’ contribution to Nigeria’s economic development.

He noted that revenue generated by the Service forms part of government resources deployed to finance critical national priorities, including infrastructure, security, education, healthcare and other public services.

Oshoba dedicated the achievement to the government and people of Nigeria, while commending the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi and the management team for their continued support for automation, modernisation and reforms designed to make Customs operations more efficient, transparent and business-friendly.

The Apapa CAC also acknowledged the cooperation of compliant importers, exporters, licensed Customs agents and other stakeholders, as well as Nigerians whose actionable intelligence has supported the Command’s enforcement and revenue-collection efforts.

He stressed that every compliant transaction contributes to national development, urging stakeholders to continue embracing legitimate trade.

According to him, a stronger revenue base gives government greater capacity to respond to citizens’ needs, provide critical infrastructure and create an environment in which businesses can thrive.

However, Oshoba cautioned officers and men of the Command against complacency, saying the latest record should be regarded not simply as an achievement but as a greater responsibility to deliver even better results.

He directed personnel to ensure that revenue collection remains balanced with trade facilitation, professionalism, transparency and respect for legitimate stakeholders.

The CAC further ordered officers to resolve genuine disputes promptly and ensure that Customs procedures do not unnecessarily frustrate lawful businesses.

With the latest record coming on the heels of its ₦323 billion July haul, the Apapa Area Command is increasingly emerging as a major engine of Customs revenue mobilisation, while simultaneously seeking to deepen compliance and facilitate legitimate trade.

The Command said it would sustain the momentum through enhanced revenue collection, improved trade facilitation, professionalism, digitalisation and stronger collaboration with stakeholders.

For Oshoba, the message behind the numbers is clear: every legitimate naira collected strengthens government’s capacity to deliver on its development agenda and improve the welfare of Nigerians.

Funso OLOJO, Editor 

For decades, the Idiroko border corridor has existed at the intersection of legitimate commerce and the informal economy, serving simultaneously as a gateway for legitimate trans-border trade and a lucrative passage for smugglers exploiting Nigeria’s long and porous western frontier.

But that business environment appears to be undergoing a gradual transformation.

At the centre of the emerging change is the Ogun I Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, where the Acting Customs Area Controller, Deputy Comptroller Olukayode Afeni, has adopted a more aggressive intelligence-led enforcement strategy aimed at altering the risk-reward equation that has historically sustained illicit commerce along the corridor.

Afeni’s philosophy is relatively straightforward: legitimate trade should be facilitated, but smuggling, drug trafficking and other forms of economic sabotage must become increasingly difficult, expensive and dangerous.

The latest operational scorecard presented by the Command on Thursday, August 13th, 2026 provides an insight into the scale of that campaign.

The Command paraded seizures with a combined Duty Paid Value of N3.574 billion, covering agricultural products, petroleum products, textiles, consumer goods and narcotics.

Among the intercepted items were 2,339 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 70 cartons of basmati rice, 6,035 parcels of Ghana Loud/Indica, 30 bags of foreign sugar, 11,450 litres of PMS in kegs, 1,750 litres of PMS in drums, 30 kegs of diesel, 100 bags of fertilizer and 67 bales of second-hand clothing.

The seizure list also included thousands of pieces of new clothing, drinks, cosmetics, hair accessories, fire extinguishers, purses and other consumer products.

But the significance of the figures does not lie merely in their monetary value. They provide an indication of the variety of commercial activities that the Command is now confronting along the border—and of the extent to which enforcement is beginning to influence the operating environment for both legitimate traders and illicit networks.

The Idiroko corridor has never been simply a Customs enforcement zone. It is a commercial ecosystem connecting communities and businesses on both sides of the Nigeria-Benin frontier.

For legitimate traders, the border provides access to markets, goods and opportunities for cross-border commerce.

For smugglers, however, the same geography presents opportunities to bypass formal import procedures and exploit differences in prices, taxes, restrictions and market demand between the two countries.
That is where Afeni’s intervention becomes significant.

Rather than viewing seizures as isolated enforcement events, the current strategy increasingly appears designed to disrupt the underlying business model of smuggling.

Every intercepted truck, vehicle, petroleum consignment, rice shipment or narcotics parcel represents not only a seizure but a potential interruption of a supply chain.

The objective is to make illegal trade less predictable and less profitable.

Rice and the economics of local production

Foreign parboiled rice remains one of the most visible commodities in the border enforcement equation.

The interception of more than 2,300 bags in the latest operation reinforces the persistent pressure on domestic rice production from illicit imports.

Afeni’s argument is that smuggling should be viewed through the prism of economic protection rather than merely customs prohibition.

When imported rice enters Nigeria outside the approved channels, it competes directly with Nigerian farmers, millers and distributors without necessarily bearing the same regulatory and fiscal obligations.

For a government attempting to strengthen domestic agricultural production, such competition can undermine investment and discourage farmers from expanding production.

The Ogun I campaign therefore places border enforcement within the broader question of Nigeria’s food-security strategy.
In Afeni’s formulation, protecting the border is also protecting the farmer.

The narcotics economy

If rice represents the agricultural dimension of the border challenge, narcotics represent its darker security dimension.

The Command’s interception of 6,035 parcels of Ghana Loud/Indica in the latest operation is significant, but the larger figure disclosed by Afeni is even more revealing.

From January to date, he said, Ogun I has handed over 32,412 parcels of hard drugs and 92 sacks of raw Cannabis sativa to the NDLEA Idiroko Special Command.

That figure places narcotics enforcement firmly among the Command’s major operational priorities.

It also demonstrates why border security increasingly requires agencies to work beyond traditional institutional boundaries.

Customs officers may intercept the shipment, but the investigation, drug intelligence and prosecution process require the specialised capabilities of the NDLEA and other security agencies.

The formal handover of the seized narcotics during Thursday’s event therefore symbolised the growing importance of inter-agency collaboration in securing the corridor.

The border as an export gateway

Perhaps one of the less discussed aspects of the Ogun I story is the Command’s export performance.

While considerable attention is naturally attracted by seizures, the Command also recorded 10,110 metric tonnes of exports, with a Free On Board value of N2.594 billion.
White talc, crushed thermal coal and CNG were identified as the principal drivers of the export volume.

That statistic is important because it challenges the perception of Idiroko principally as a route for imported goods.
The corridor is also capable of serving as a platform for Nigerian exports.

This creates a potentially important policy distinction. The objective of effective border management should not be to suppress cross-border commerce; rather, it should be to differentiate legitimate commerce from illicit trade and create an environment where compliant businesses can operate with greater certainty.

For Customs, that means enforcement and trade facilitation must move together.

Revenue from the corridor

The Command’s fiscal contribution also offers another measure of its economic relevance.
In July alone, Ogun I collected N90.066 million from baggage assessments, auctions of perishable items, PMS and other charges.

Although the figure is modest when compared with the revenue generated by Nigeria’s major seaport commands, it illustrates the multiple revenue streams available within the border environment.

More importantly, it demonstrates that the border economy extends beyond the conventional importation of goods.

A new risk calculation for smugglers

The central question surrounding Afeni’s tenure may therefore not be how many seizures the Command records in a particular month.

It may be whether the enforcement campaign is succeeding in changing the underlying calculation made by those who contemplate using the Idiroko corridor for illegal trade.

For years, smuggling has survived because its potential returns could outweigh the risks of interception.

That equation changes when intelligence improves, surveillance becomes more effective, inter-agency coordination becomes stronger and seized goods are followed by investigation and prosecution.

Afeni’s repeated warning that the Command intends to make Ogun I “hostile” to smugglers is therefore more than rhetoric.

It represents an attempt to change the commercial environment in which illicit operators make their decisions.
But legitimate trade must remain protected

There is, however, another side to the equation. Idiroko’s importance cannot be measured only by the volume of contraband intercepted.

Thousands of Nigerians depend on legitimate cross-border commercial activity, while manufacturers, exporters, transporters, farmers and traders require an efficient and predictable border environment.

This makes Afeni’s appeal to the media to distinguish legitimate trade from illicit activity particularly important.

An aggressive enforcement regime that succeeds in deterring smuggling but inadvertently discourages legitimate commerce would produce an incomplete outcome.

The real measure of success would be a corridor where legitimate traders face greater certainty while smugglers face greater uncertainty.

That distinction will be critical to the long-term economic impact of the current enforcement drive.

From border enforcement to economic protection

Afeni’s presentation ultimately places the Ogun I Command at the intersection of three major national priorities: security, economic protection and trade facilitation.

The seizure of foreign rice speaks to agricultural protection.
The interception of narcotics speaks to public safety and national security.

The export figures point towards the untapped commercial potential of the corridor.
The revenue figures demonstrate its fiscal relevance.

Taken together, the figures suggest that what is happening at Ogun I is bigger than a succession of seizure announcements.
It is a contest over the character of the Idiroko border economy itself.

Whether the emerging model can permanently shift the corridor from an environment where illicit commerce flourishes to one where legitimate trans-border trade becomes the dominant business model will depend on the sustainability of enforcement, the efficiency of Customs procedures, infrastructure, inter-agency cooperation and the willingness of border communities to support lawful commerce.

For now, however, Afeni appears determined to push the equation in one direction.
Make legitimate trade easier to identify and protect—and make smuggling increasingly difficult to sustain.

That could ultimately prove to be the most consequential change taking place along the Idiroko corridor.