440 arms seizure: Nigeria yet to get response from US

About four months after the Tincan Island Command of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, intercepted 440 pump action rifles smuggled into the country from Turkey, the government of the United State of America, USA, is yet to assist Nigeria in tracing the agency or individual that the arms were sold to.

The arms intercepted precisely in May, 2017, concealed in a 20ft container and falsely declared as white cement by the importer, in a bid to escape security checks, were uncovered by the intelligence driven technique used by Customs officers during examination.

Sunday Vanguard during investigations gathered that, though the deadly weapons were smuggled into Nigeria from Turkey, that the arms were manufactured by a company in US. In that capacity, the US government requested for the serial numbers of the arms, in order to assist Nigeria trace the real buyer, and the Customs management took a bold stop in sending the serial numbers of the arms, in order to ascertain which organisation or individual that the manufacturing company sold the arms to, but till now, nothing has been done to follow up the case.

However, till this moment, the US government that has earlier promised to assist Nigeria, in order to fast track the investigation has not responded again. Now, the questions are, why is nothing being done to trace those who bought the rifles from the manufacturing company in US? Why is the US government not responding in assisting Nigeria as earlier promised?

Vanguard, October 1, 2017

 

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