Customs
Dismissed Customs officers, importer of 661 pump- action rifles bag 16 years jail term
Eyewitness reporter
Mahmud Hassan, Oscar Okafor, and other dismissed Customs officers who were arrested in 2017 in connection with the importation of 661 pump rifles have been sentenced to a cumulative 16 years jail term by the Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday, December 3rd, 2021.
The suspects were convicted for unlawful importation of prohibited firearms, forgery, uttering of forged documents, and bribery.
It was gathered that Hassan conspired with his accomplices to unlawfully import 661 pump-action rifles into the country.
Others convicted by the trial judge, Justice Ayokunle Faji, were Oskar Okafor, Donatus Achinulo, and Mahmud’s company, Hassan Trades Limited.
Justice Faji, who delivered the verdict after reading the judgment for five hours, however, acquitted and discharged Abdulahi Danjuma of all the charges.
Julius Ajakaye, and one of the defence counsels, Adamu Ibrahim, passed on while the trial lasted for about four years.
The court judge was convinced of the charges against the suspects and sentenced them to eight years imprisonment each on the said count.
On count one (conspiracy), Justice Faji found the first, second, and third defendants guilty and also sentenced them to eight years’ imprisonment each.
The judge also ordered the forfeiture of the properties of the convicts to the Federal Government of Nigeria as provided for by the law under which they were charged, while also ordering that the company, Hassan Trading Limited, used as a vehicle to smuggle, be closed and its assets forfeited to the Federal Government.
Justice Faji, however, discharged and acquitted the fifth defendant.
According to him, the offence committed by the convicts touched on the security of the country, adding that though the relevant provisions of the law for the offence which they were charged and convicted prescribed life imprisonment, but said the court, however, had discretion.
The trial judge said he would refrain from giving a maximum punishment but added that the convicts must be made an example to serve as a deterrent to other would-be criminals.
He listed the convicts again as Mahmud Hassan, Oscar Okafor, Donatus Achinulo, and Salihu Danjuma, nothing that the fifth defendant, Matthew Okoye, was at large.
According to the prosecution, they also forged a bill of lading issued in Istanbul on January 9, 2017, falsely claiming that it was issued in Shanghai, China.
They were said to have attempted to evade the payment of customs duty by filling “steel door” as the content of the container instead of rifles.
The prosecution also alleged that the first convict, Hassan, corruptly gave N1m to government officials at the Apapa Port to prevent the search by Customs officials.
But the accused had pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them. The judge, however, maintained that the sentence shall run concurrently.
The Comptroller General, Colonel Hameed Ali, (rtd) had in January 2017, told newsmen at Ikeja, that despite the Federal Government’s ban on pump-action rifles and other firearms, 661 pieces of the rifle were found in 49 boxes.
According to him, they were concealed in steel doors and other merchandise goods in a 40-feet container conveyed in a Mack truck with registration number BDG 265 XG.
Colonel Ali, at that time, said that three suspects were arrested in connection with the illegal importation.
The container according to the Customs Service was arrested around the Apapa- Mile 2 expressway where it was discreetly packed.
Sources say the goods were manufactured in China and taken through Turkey into Lagos, Nigeria.
The Customs boss revealed that preliminary investigation showed that the consignment went through clearance at the Lagos port but that all the officers behind the deal were undergoing interrogation while other suspects were in custody and thereafter charged to court.
Also, The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), in 2017, declared two of its officers wanted over the infamous importation of 661 pump-action rifles into the country.
The officers declared wanted were Abdulahi, I, an assistant superintendent of customs (ASC), with service number 44483 and ACIC Odiba Inah, with service number 133386.
Consequently, however, the Federal government in August 2017, arraigned five men for allegedly importing 661 pump-action rifles into the country without lawful authority.
The accused were arraigned before Justice Ayokunle Faji at the Federal High Court in Lagos.
They are Mahmud Hassan, Oscar Okafor, Donatus Achinulo, Matthew Okoye, said be at large, and Salihu Danjuma.
In the charge, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice said the accused brought the rifles into the country from Turkey through the Apapa Port in Lagos, using a 40-feet container, which they falsely claimed contained steel doors.
To facilitate the illegal importation, the accused allegedly forged a number of documents including a bill of lading, a Form M and a Pre-Arrival Assessment Report.
According to the prosecution, in order to evade payment of Customs duty, the accused allegedly forged a bill of lading issued in Istanbul on January 9, 2017, falsely claiming that it was issued in Shanghai, China.
In the forged bill of lading, they allegedly filled “steel door” as the content of the container instead of rifles.
They were also said to have allegedly offered a bribe of N400,000 to an official of the Nigeria Customs Service attached to the Federal Operative Unit to influence the said officer not to conduct a “hundred percent search on the 40-feet container with number PONU 825914/3.”
The prosecution also alleged that the first accused, Hassan, corruptly gave N1m to Customs officials at the Apapa Port in order to prevent the search of the container.
In the last count, the Federal Government alleged that the defendants had between 2012 and 2016 illegally imported several double-barreled shotguns, pump-action rifles, and single-barreled shotguns into the country through Lagos.
The eight counts pressed against them border on conspiracy, importation of prohibited firearms, forgery, uttering of forged documents, and bribery.
The offences were said to be contrary to sections 1(2)(c), 1(14) (a)(I), and 3(6) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap M17, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2014.
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EFCC amends charges, re-arraigns ex-Customs boss for alleged N1.9bn contract fraud
The Eyewitness Reporter
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) on Friday, April 26, 2024, re-arraigned a former Assistant Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Bridget Okafor, before Justice Venchak .S. Gaba of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court, Kuje, Abuja.
Okafor alongside her Company Bridkass Investment Integrated Limited is facing trial on 13 amended count charges bordering on abuse of office, misappropriation and contract scam to the tune of N1,966,378,045.85 (One Billion, Nine Hundred and Sixty-Six Million, Three Hundred and Seventy Eight Thousand, Forty-Five Naira, Eighty-Five Kobo).
Count seven of the charges reads; “That you, BRIDGET CHIENYEZU OKAFOR whilst being employed in the public service as Assistant Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service in charge of Finance and Revenue, sometime in 2014 at Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did knowingly acquire a private interest in contracts awarded by Nigeria Customs Service to NIKOBI INTERNATIONAL, a business enterprise of your son (CHIKWADO OKAFOR) and for which the Nigeria Customs Service paid the gross sum of N329,021,640.00 (Three Hundred and Twenty-Nine Million, Twenty-One Thousand, Six Hundred and Forty Naira only) and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 12 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000”.
She pleaded not guilty to all the thirteen-count charges when they were read to her.
In view of her plea, prosecution counsel, Attah M. Ocholi requested the court to enter the second defendant’s plea as not guilty too since it’s her company.
He, however, requested to continue the testimony of the sixth prosecution witness, PW6, Agid Mohammed.
Mohammed, a detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,(EFCC) said the Commission in January 2016 received an intelligence about valuable items suspected to be proceeds of crime kept at the residence of a former Comptroller General of Customs, late Abdullahi Dikko Inde.
“After receiving the Intel, a surveillance was carried out, and then we obtained a search warrant. We went to the apartment and conducted a search and found incriminating items, and they were duly recovered.”
“We wrote to the Customs Service and requested for 7% cost of collection and 1% Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme of 2014-2015, and how it was disbursed.
”We received and analyzed it, and then we wrote to the Customs and invited the first defendant, Mrs. Okafor, for an interview. She came and volunteered her statement in writing. She was interviewed in a well-ventilated office with windows and other people were present too.”
Testifying further, Mohammed informed the court that the EFCC received another intelligence in January 2016 about other valuable items suspected to be proceeds of crime kept at the residence of a former Comptroller General of Customs, late Abdullahi Dikko Inde. A search was conducted, and incriminating items were recovered.
“Further investigation revealed a fraudulent diversion of over N40 billion from the Nigeria Customs Service in 2014, allegedly involving the first defendant.
“The first defendant was asked if she wanted to volunteer her statement, and she agreed. I then brought out the EFCC statement sheet, and she volunteered a written statement and signed it, and I counter-signed as a witness, ” he said.
Asked what they recovered when they secured a search warrant in the first defendant’s home, Mohammed said they recovered various items, including letter-headed papers of companies linked to Okafor’s children in her bedroom.
“The companies, Ponial Interglobal Investment Nigeria Limited, Nikobi International Limited, Tabes Concept International Limited, Bridkass Investment Integrated Limited and Guap Properties and Realtors Services Limited, were all linked to the first defendant’s children, and they executed contracts with the Nigerian Customs Service and received payments”, he said.
The witness also disclosed that Okafor was the signatory to various bank accounts and had influence over the award of contracts in the Nigeria Customs Service because she was still in active service when the contracts were awarded.
“My Lord, the first defendant was still the Assistant Comptroller General of Customs when the contracts were executed, and she reported to the Deputy Comptroller General, Finance, Administration, and Technical Services, whose office is saddled with the responsibility of awarding contracts in the Nigerian Customs Service.”
After listening to the testimony of Mohammed, Justice Gaba adjourned the matter until June 26, 2024, for cross-examination and continuation of the trial.
Okafor was first arraigned on May 19, 2019, before the same judge in FCT High Court, Kwali before he was transferred to Kuje FCT High Court.
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