Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hammed Ibrahim Ali (retd.), on Thursday told the House of Representatives how his men averted the smuggling of $8.067 million out of the country by unknown persons.
Ali said NCS was investigating the ownership of the commercial aircraft hired to convey the money out of Nigeria under suspicious circumstance.
The Customs chief was answering questions from members of the House Committee on Finance on the interception of the money.
He said his men, acting on a tip-off, intercepted a vehicle belonging to the Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO), which was driven onto the tarmac of the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Ikeja (MMIA) through a restricted gate by officials of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
Ali said the cash, which was in $100 bill, was neatly packed in different envelops with names written on each envelope.
The Customs chief explained that the service was working hard to determine whether the names were real or fake and apprehend the culprits.
He said even though the Custom had no legal power to probe financial transactions, it was conducting its preliminary investigations and would soon hand over the matter to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which has the mandate to do such investigations.
Ali said the driver of the NAHCO van conveying the money was in custody of the service, pending when he would be handed to the appropriate authority.
The House Committee is investigating the under-remittance of operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the federation by some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Ali said the Customs suspected that it was a case of money laundering.
According to him, the EFCC will be in a better position to tell Nigerians the owners of the money and what it was meant for.
Giving insight into the discovery, Ali said: “This is an incident, which happened at the MMIA. Our men had information that some consignment of money was to be moved and, fortunately, they put their own men on alert.
“Behold, they had a vehicle, a NAHCO vehicle, driven on January 16, 2020, to the tarmac. Then, there were three commercial aircraft on the ground. Up till now, we are still in the process of investigation (the incident) to know which of the aircraft the money supposed to be loaded into.
“But the vehicle was intercepted on the tarmac and the Customs personnel accosted the driver and asked him questions because that vehicle was not supposed to be there.
“The FAAN, for whatever reason, according to investigation, opened the gate, which is restricted to such a vehicle and the vehicle found its way onto the tarmac.
“Then, it was accosted by our officers who insisted they must search the vehicle. There they found eight wraps of consignments and they became suspicious. And they insisted they wanted to know the origin of the wraps and where they were going.
“The driver kept mute; so, he was the first suspect, and he was arrested. The Customs personnel arrested him, then took the consignment back to the Controller’s office.
“There, the consignment was first and foremost put under detention and put in the sequence. Then, a seizure notice was given. That gave us the right under the law to open the parcels and see what the contents were.
“That was done in front of all other agencies that work at the airport, under a camera. Each of those parcels was opened. There were names written on some of those bundles of money. But up till this moment, we don’t know whether those names are for real people.
“And then the money was counted. They were all in $100 bills. They were counted and …we found $8,067,612. The only one parcel in a small envelope was containing a few ones that had 107 noted of $100 bills. The money was added to it.
“That was properly documented. Then, a seizure notice was issued. With that, the authority will take custody of the money.”
“It is based on this we held the media briefing to show Nigerians what was happening at our airport. After that, we are doing a preliminary investigation. By right, it is not our job to investigate financial crimes at the airport. It is the EFCC that has the power. So, we are only going to do the preliminary investigation, put the suspect and the amount together and hand them over to EFCC for in-depth investigation. It is our hope that at the end of the day, the EFCC will reveal who the owners of the money are, where the money is supposed to go and what it is meant for.
“Those ones are not revealed at this moment. So, I hope EFCC will reveal that and then the public will get to know what the funds are meant for and what its nature is.
“For us, we are suspecting it is money laundering and we are going to hand over to the EFCC,” he said.
Praising the Customs for the successes it recorded in the matter, the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, James Faleke said: “In a period when the United States (U.S.A) is giving us conditions under which the so-called Sani Abacha loot must to be returned to Nigeria, we also find ourselves, one of us in Nigeria, also trying to loot dollars out of our country. It was quite unfortunate.
“But we commend you, we commend the service for being vigilant and proactive. All we can say is to urge Nigerians to cooperate with the Nigeria Customs Service and all other law enforcement agencies to assist and give information on what is happening that is not good. You see something, you say something.”

By Tony Akowe