Nigerian Customs Officer Arrested For Aiding Boko Haram’ Arms Movement Through Borno Border

May 29, 2013 – Nigerian Customs Officer Arrested For Aiding Boko Haram Arms Movement Through Borno Border

A senior personnel of the Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) has been arrested in Maiduguri by the military forces for alleged complicity in the movement of arms through Borno borders by the Boko Haram sect.

A dependable security source hinted that the senior officer who is in the operations unit at the Borno Command of the Nigeria Customs was allegedly working discreetly with the insurgent group by “providing unfettered access for the sect to move arms into the country.”

Another source, a civil servant who did not want his name in print maintained in an interaction with some journalists in Maiduguri that the Custom officer was actually arrested. “A security personnel also told me that the senior officer manned the border post each time the truck conveying arms was about coming into Maiduguri. He would simply tell his boys to let it pass that it has been cleared from above,” he said.

“These trucks usually come with goods from Chad or Niger and arms are carefully hidden there but he would tell his boys at the duty post that the trucks are already cleared. It was one of such supposed cleared trucks that exposed him. The truck was checked again by the multi-national joint task force troops at the border and behold, arms were discovered and the driver spilled the bean,” he added.

It was gathered that the senior Custom personnel had been under watch by his superiors for some time until last week when the bubble burst. Unconfirmed report claimed his house along the Maiduguri-Bama Road was searched by the Joint Task Force (JTF) troops where some military uniforms and arms were discovered.

[Report from Premium Times]