Harboursandport.com: Lagos --- Hoodlums operating around the Cocoa-nut area
of Lagos have constantly scale the fence of the Western Marine Command of the
Nigeria Customs Service, NCS and attack the government warehouse there with the
intention of carting away seized contraband items.
A source close to the Command told Harboursandport that the
hoodlums normally lunch their attack whenever large seizures are made by
officials of the Command. Items usually targeted by the hoodlums Vanguard was
informed, are bags of rice, petroleum products, second hand clothes etc.
Harboursandport
gathered that the hoodlums actually succeeded in charting away some of the
items from the warehouse late last year, a claimed denied by the Command's
Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Customs, ASC Emmanuel Tangwa.
Tangwa, confirmed to Vanguard that there have been some
attacks by hoodlums but that officers of the Command had successfully thwarted
such attacks each time they are launched. The source attributed the frequent
attacks to the gradual in encroachment of the over ten acres of land along
Ibafon creek, adjacent Cocoanut area of Olodi-Apapa, Lagos which was given to
it in the 70’s when the anti-smuggling unit of the Service was established.
Officials of the Service and some traditional rulers
around the area where the land is located were believed to be behind the sale
and encroachment of the property. This is after the Lagos state government has
allegedly taken about half the land on which a school was sighted.
While another source, blamed the contractor
engaged by the immediate past leadership of the Service to fence the property
round; for doing a lazy man’s job. The source explained that for reasons best
known to it, the contractor only fenced a small portion of the land close to
the existing buildings leaving room for other people to further encroach into
the Customs land.
The source said that there were unconfirmed
reports that the contractor may have also been involved in the sale of the
portion of the land fenced out.
The Customs Area Controller, CAC in charge of
the command, Musa Sarkin-Kebbi, confirmed that there has been encroachment on
the land based available survey of the original size of the land which he has
forwarded to Abuja.
He however did not speak on the issue of
frequent attacks by hoodlums on the property.
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