Why would the Nigeria Customs Service(NCS) arrest, detain and strip one of its officials, John Owombo, of his rank for blowing the whistle exposing a racket of diversion of millions of litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise referred to as petrol into neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad, at a period when the nation is suffering financial hemorrhage? That is the puzzle some civil rights activists and relations of the official want the presidency and all its anti-corruption agencies, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the ICPC to solve. Early in November, Owombo, a Superintendent of Customs, attached to the Federal Operations Unit Zone D in Adamawa State, had in a viral video exposed how top officers in the service were aiding and abetting smuggling of refined petroleum products into the African countries. He stated that some top officials of the Service received the sum of N150,000 gratification, sometimes to forge a pass, usually given legitimately by the top security agencies to grant export of fuel to neigbouring countries. But in recent times, some of these pass are forged after the receipt of gratification and tankers full of thousands of litres of petrol are allowed to pass into neighbouring countries. In some instances, the impression was given that the tankers are billed for some Nigerian border towns. According to sources, after several years of these illegal activities which have robbed Nigeria of millions of litres of fuel, perpetrated by some top petrol dealers in concert with some Customs officials, Owombo chose to blow the lid off the criminal diversion. He has since been arrested, detained and moved first to Bauchi and later to the Customs Headquarters in Abuja, preparatory for dismissal, instead of utilizing the information to address the current leakage in the sector. A source conversant with the incident said that, “many Customs officers who are supposed to prevent smuggling have been participating in cross smuggling. The guy was arrested by ‘the power that be, at the instance of the cartel who perpetrate the smuggling. The perpetrators are two Alhajis. We have their names.” Pictures of some of the fuel tankers that were taken in the desert part of Adamawa State arrested along with their number places and alleged “pass,” bearing number plates and names of the fuel dealers were made available to our Correspondent. Similarly, some waybills and stickers dated as far as September 2020 to 2021 bearing the names of the fuel dealer and number plates, and product distribution sheets ostensibly issued by the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company Limited Gombe Area Office, dated 27, April 2021 were made available to our correspondents The source stated that the officer also knows the bank account details where the N150,000 gratification per tanker was being paid into, which explained why the perpetrators are desperately moving to ensure he is dismissed from the Service.

Magnitude of diversion

Daily, at least, 42 million litres of petrol are smuggled out of Nigeria at a resultant cost of about N2 billion, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). In November 2019, the NCS announced a directive that restricted petroleum products from being supplied to fuel stations within 20 kilometres of the borders. With millions of Nigerians grappling with periodic fuel shortages, the porous borders, spanning over 17,000 kilometres, make it possible for the product to be smuggled to these neighbouring countries easily. Besides, crude oil theft in the last six years has impacted negatively on Nigeria’s ability to meet its OPEC quota and revenues that accrues to the government to finance its activities and development programmes. To underscore the level of theft and how brazen oil thieves have become, NNPCL GMD, Mele Kyari, at an event earlier in the month, said the perpetrators were after his life, following the discovery of 295 illegal pipeline connections for syphoning oil in various parts of the country. Despite the presence of the police and other security agencies, Kyari said the scale of theft has been very enormous, such that NNPCL has seen pipelines taken from main trunks lines to abandoned platforms, bringing national daily production to 1.1 million barrels. He lamented that about 700,000 barrels of crude oil are stolen daily, but the battle against this theft has yielded a measure of positive results as daily production has risen to 1.4 million barrels per day.

Falana intervenes

Human Rights Lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, said he was miffed by the arrest of the of- ficial by the NCS, especially since he was performing a patriotic duty of exposing sleaze in the system. He called for the release of Owombo and his revelation should be investigated by the government. He said: “Last year, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Colonel Hamid Ali (rtd) accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Directorate of Petroleum Resources of involvement in smuggling fuel out of Nigeria to neighbouring countries. “Furthermore, at a public hearing recently held at the National Assembly, Colonel Ali questioned the claim of the NNPC that the daily consumption rate of fuel is 68 million litres. The patriotic revelation of the Comptroller- General of Customs was hailed by the entirety of the Nigerian people “Therefore, the detained officer should be released or charged before a court of competent jurisdiction if there is evidence that he has committed a criminal offence prescribed by law. “The allegation made by the detained officer should not be swept under the carpet. It should be investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as it is the height of economic sabotage to budget trillions of naira for the importation of fuel and allow the same to be smuggled out of Nigeria through roads that are manned by customs and immigration officers.”

Customs speaks

Last week, the National Public Relations Officer of Customs, Deputy Comptroller Timi Bomodi, said the officer has since been arrested and awaiting medical evaluation. In a press statement in Abuja, the Service said the person in the video is indeed an officer of Nigeria Customs Service, and he is currently attached to the Federal Operations Unit Zone D in Adamawa. “This incident occurred on Wednesday 2nd of November 2022 at Malabo Checkpoint on Belel Road, Adamawa State. It is important to note that 55 kilometers separate this location from the nearest border. Between the place where this incident occurred and the border, there are fully operational petrol stations.” He said that preliminary investigations indicated that the drivers on these trucks were in possession of duly signed product distribution sheets for consignments allocated by PPMC for filling stations within that vicinity. According to him, as the vehicles were in transit, they were considered still to be within city limits and therefore can neither be accused of nor arrested for transporting goods across the border. “The state in which this officer depicted himself in this video, his comportment and his speech suggests a level of incoherence associated with people of an unstable mind. Indeed, his actions led to his immediate withdrawal by the Controller Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘D’, who instructed his detention pending medical evaluation. “The NCS seriously frowns at any action that is inimical to the economic well-being of our nation. Our battle with smuggling has been unequivocal and unyielding. Our checkpoints are usually manned by a team of officers all of whom are assigned specific responsibilities,” he said.

Relatives speak

Relatives of the officer have been calling for the intervention for President Muhammadu Buhari in the matter, because of the anti-corruption stance of his government. Mr. Olorunyomi Owombo said the presidency should display more than passing interest in the case because it could be swept under the carpet by the authorities. According to him, the current financial crises facing the country was because the massive theft of petroleum products, both crude and refined, and a revelation of this nature might just be what was needed to unravel the criminals behind this theft, diversions and economic sabotage. Owombo said the life of his brother was at stake because of the volume of sensitive information at his disposal for which the perpetrators might want to eliminate him. “This is the time for the presidency to intervene and even send a strong warning to everyone that the law must be obeyed. The young man should even be commended for his heroic disclosure,” he said. A top official of the NSC, who does not want his name in print said though Owombo may have violated policy of the service on the use of social media, this is clearly a patriotic whistle blowing activity and it is of great importance to national security. “This should not be treated like the case in 2020, when an Army General, Olusegun Adeniyi, was demoted to the rank of Brigadier-General over a viral video where he called for more military weapons and intelligence to fight Boko Haram in the North-East. “This particular disclosure should be handled for its capability to facilitate government efforts to unravel the massive theft of petroleum products and revenue around the country. Government should utilize this particular intelligence to address the massive theft of petroleum products in the country.” (Sunday Telegraph)

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