By Olubunmi ISOKPEHI, Lagos
The Co-ordinator of the Comptroller General of Customs(CGC) Strike Force Team, Zone A, Assistant Comptroller Abba Kakudi, has said, ” Despite the smugglers take advantage of every opportunity given, they are one step ahead of them in whatever they are planning.”
The coordinator of the team, Abba Kakudi, disclosed this information in an exclusive interview with GLOBAL RAYS Media, adding, ” Though we still need more modern gadgets like drones, scanners and satellites that will help us pinpoint the dark spot where smugglers and smuggling activities take place in our foreign borders.”
He asserted, ” With the encouragement given to us by President Buhari and the Comptroller General of Customs,Col.Hameed Ali (rtd) along side his management team we have no choice but to strive hard all through day and night, come rain come night.”
Adding, ” We don’t expect anybody to come and reform our country, we have to do it by ourselves and we have to start somewhere.”
He posited, ” Foreign companies dominating Nigeria are only promoting their own trade in our country at the economic detriment of our country.”
He sited, ” Some of them will come in with the guise that they want to establish factories in our country but end up bring finished products which are not helpful to the Nigerian Labour Force.”
Kakudi stressed, ” Our challenges basically is the terrain we find ourselves, during rainy season our vehicles can’t go deep into some places when bikes can reach, especially in swampy areas , while the smugglers run into their community and mingle with them which makes it difficult to distinguish the smugglers and innocent citizens.”
He submitted, ” Sometimes, they mobilize underage youths to call us names, stoning our men, but for our well equipped clinic established in every command in Nigeria, we are able to take care of our men who get injured while on duty.”
However, he urged the media men to assist in enlightening the public on the dangers of Smuggling which poses danger to our health and lives in general.
