Nigeria loses anti-smuggling war to language barrier, says Customs

Haruna Muhammadu, the newly-deployed comptroller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun State Area Command, has lamented that the threat posed by the language barrier between the Customs and its counterpart agencies in the neighbouring Francophone countries is hindering the fight against smuggling in the land border.

Muhammadu, who replaced Ade Dosunmu, said at the handing-over held in Idi-Iroko, Ogun State Area Command, that involvement of interpreters between Customs and counterpart Francophone agencies was making the anti-smuggling war and intelligence work difficult to carry out.

He revealed that despite the efforts of Nigeria Customs, Francophone counterparts and other security agencies targeted at prevention of crimes and criminality at borderlines as well as anti-smuggling measures put up to prevent the illegal importation of contrabands, there were still some saboteurs that jeopardised the anti-smuggling efforts of Nigeria Customs.

“If we want to say anything secret, there is always an interpreter, which means there is no more secret and that makes the security and intelligence work difficult to carry out,” he said.

Consequently, the new comptroller pledged intensive borderline patrol to prevent the illegal importation of contrabands and other crimes at borderlines which, he said, could not be achieved with the singular effort of Nigeria Customs. He called for cooperation and synergy among sister agencies in the country and its Francophone counterparts.

“The era of inter-agency competition is over. There should be synergy and co-operation. We have to exchange information. Information is power because that is the only way we can achieve our goals,” he said.

By: RAZAQ AYINLA