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With the increasing use of military and police uniforms by terrorists and other criminal elements in Nigeria, the various security and intelligence agencies should unravel the ownership and potential users of the 47 sacks of military camouflage uniforms intercepted recently by the Lagos State Police Command, and should not treat the seizure like other previous cases where the wealthy owners of illegally imported arms and ammunition, and their potential users, were not made public, Ejiofor Alike writes
Who are the real owners and potential users of the military camouflage uniforms intercepted recently by the Lagos State Police Command?
If the uniforms contained in 47 sacks, alongside 80 cartons of suspected illicit substances, were brought into the country through the ports, how did they escape the eagle eyes of the various government agencies at the ports?
These are some of the questions investigators must unravel in the coming weeks as the Lagos State Police Command launched investigations to determine the source of the uniforms and drugs.
The interception of these items came amid growing concerns over the increasing use of military and police-grade uniforms by terrorists and other criminal elements across the country.
In Nigeria today, it is difficult to distinguish genuine soldiers and policemen from fake ones due to the proliferation of fake military and police uniforms, which are imported into the country.
With Nigeria’s porous borders, foreigners as well as arms and ammunition, are illegally brought into the country to cause mayhem.
Security officials at Nigeria’s sea and land borders collude with importers and smugglers to bring various grades of weapons and illicit drugs that are fuelling insecurity in the country.
Even when these illegal items are intercepted by the relevant agencies, only the errand boys are made to face justice, while the wealthy individuals behind their importation are shielded from the law.
On several occasions, security agencies seize imported items while their wealthy owners are allowed to go scot-free to continue the illegal and unpatriotic business.
That’s why the interception of the 47 sacks of military uniforms and the drugs should not be treated like previous seizures of illicit drugs and arms where the real owners, as well as their destinations and potential users, were not publicly disclosed.
In what it described as a major intelligence-led operation in the Surulere area of Lagos State, the state police command intercepted these items in its renewed war against crimes in the state.
The state Commissioner of Police, Fatai Tijani, announced this feat while addressing journalists at the command headquarters in Ikeja last Tuesday.
According to the CP, three suspects were apprehended on Saturday night penltimate week with an unregistered MAN diesel truck loaded with military camouflage uniforms and cartons of substances suspected to be illicit drugs.
Many believe that the arrested suspects are mere errand boys.
The CP also explained that preliminary investigations revealed that the truck was heading to the South-east.
However, more intelligence-based investigations should unravel the real owners and potential users of the uniforms and not just the destination.
While there is increasing use of military and police uniforms by terrorists, many Nigerian politicians are also notorious for using thugs in military and police uniforms to intimidate their political opponents and perpetrate violence during elections.
This is why the determination of actual owners and potential users is very important in view of the fact that the 2027 general election is approaching.
While CP Tijani and his officers and men deserve accolades for the victory they recorded in recent weeks in the ongoing war against insecurity, his promise to investigate the crime should not be the last Nigerians would hear of the intercepted items.
Some weeks ago, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) made a similar claim that the luxury bus conveying military camouflage uniforms and illicit drugs it seized along the Sagamu-Ore-Benin Expressway, was also heading towards the South-east.
However, the NCS has not revealed the identities of the wealthy owners and potential users of the items.
It is this lack of painstaking investigation to track and expose the real owners and users of imported arms, and illicit drugs that encourages the importation of these items into the country.
On the efforts being made to curb the influx of illegal aliens into the country, the Lagos CP also announced the arrest of foreign nationals during a separate operation on Lagos Island.
He said the suspects comprised 14 citizens of Chad, nine from Burkina Faso, four from Benin Republic, four Malians, two Togolese, two Cameroonians and one Guinean.
According to him, many of those arrested were unable to provide satisfactory explanations about their activities in Nigeria.
Illegal aliens and criminal elements from neighbouring countries troop into Nigeria because they speak the same languages with many Nigerian ethnic groups.
Indeed, Nigeria is a breeding ground for illegal aliens and unauthorised weapons.
In July 2024, the NCS intercepted nine containers bearing offensive items, including arms, ammunition, illicit drugs and second-hand clothes with a total duty paid value of N13.915 billion at Onne Port in Rivers State.
One of the containers, a 40-footer with numbers: MAEU165396, which originated from Turkey, contained 844 units of rifles and 112,500 pieces of live ammunition with a total duty-paid value of N4.171 billion.
The seizure of the 844 rifles and 112,500 pieces of live ammunition was not the first time NCS recorded a major victory against the influx of arms into the country.
The interception of 661 pump action rifles imported from Turkey at Apapa Port in Lagos State on January 22, 2017 was also another major achievement by the NCS.
The container, which was cleared at the port with the aid of two compromised NCS officers, was on its way to an unknown destination before it was intercepted at the Mile 2-Apapa Expressway by the operatives of the FOU Ikeja.
The NCS had declared two of its officers – Abdulahi I., an assistant superintendent of customs (ASC), with service number 44483, and ACIC Odiba Inah, with service number 133386, wanted over the incident.
On September 6, 2017, the NCS intercepted 1,570 pump action rifles at Terminal B1, of the Tincan Island Port, Lagos.
Barely 48 hours after the seizure of the 844 rifles in July 2024, the NCS intercepted a cache of arms and ammunition valued at N270 million at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) in Lagos.
The 55 pieces of unassembled Jojef Magnum (Tomahawk) semi-automatic shotgun, which were intercepted at the cargo section of the MMA, were also imported from Turkey.
While the police and the NCS deserve commendation for their efforts, they need to collaborate with the Department of State Services (DSS), and other agencies to establish the actual destination, potential distributors and end users of imported weapons and uniforms, so as to expose these criminal networks and bring the perpetrators to justice.
That’s the only way to curb the influx of the main drivers of insecurity into the country.