The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has named Robert Eze and Ejiogu Godson as the two suspects arrested in connection with the attempted importation of 399 fully assembled JOJEF pump-action rifles and firearm components through Tin Can Island Port, Lagos. The Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed the names on Monday during the handover of the seized weapons to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW).
Adeniyi said the suspects were arrested while attempting to clear the consignment, which arrived aboard MV VELIKA on 8 July after being flagged by Customs’ risk management system. He said Eze was arrested on 31 July at a bonded terminal while allegedly attempting to secure the release of the container.
Both suspects have been remanded by the Federal High Court in Lagos, with arraignment scheduled for 25 August. The Customs chief said the seizure was particularly significant as Nigeria battles terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes, while also approaching another election season.
Receiving the weapons, NCCSALW National Coordinator Johnson Kokumo said the centre had collected more than 21,000 small arms and light weapons since its establishment, of which over 19,000 had been destroyed. Kokumo said the seized weapons would be catalogued and documented, with serviceable weapons required for authorised state security use accounted for, while illegal, obsolete and unserviceable arms would be destroyed.