Published 19th Mar, 2024

By Tola Owoyele

Following ‘Fisayo Soyombo, FIJ’s Editor-in-Chief’s investigative report titled ‘Undercover as a Smuggler‘, it was learned that smugglers, who had over the years profited immensely from illegally importing goods into Nigeria, and via Ogun State’s many porous borders, temporarily suspended their activities. The smugglers were said to have subsequently stopped the illegal importation of goods like rice, chicken and turkey.

On Sunday, March 17, 2023, FIJ’s Tola Owoyele visited Ilaro, Oja Odan and Ikotun, three locations known to be home to various smuggling routes between Yewa North and South local government areas to monitor smuggling activities..

“Undercover as a Smugger,” a riveting investigative report that detailed how customs officers conspired with smugglers to illegally import goods through Nigeria’s porous borders, generated a whole lot of talking points.

The talking points bothered on how officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) consistently aided smuggling at the Nigeria-Benin Republic border in Ogun State, the high level of rot within the NCS in terms of complicity and the highly-connected and influential figures behind smuggling in Nigeria.

The investigative story resulted in publications, press releases and statements to launder the image of Ibrahim Egungbohun, popularly known as IBD Dende, a serial smuggler of all sorts of contraband.

Dende petitioned Kayode Egbetokun, the current Inspector General of Police (IGP), and also threatened FIJ with a lawsuit on the matter.

A few weeks later, news made the rounds that smugglers operating within the Ogun State end of the Nigeria-Benin Republic border, had resolved to temporarily suspend the illegal importation of goods like rice, chicken and turkey.

Twenty-five days after the story was published, I visited some areas mentioned in the story to find out if illegal importation of goods had indeed been suspended by smugglers, both “big and small,” in that part of the state.

The places I visited were Ilaro, Oja Odan and Ikotun, three locations known to be home to various smuggling routes between Yewa North and South local government areas.

NO SIGHT OF SMUGGLERS IN ILARO

The first location I visited was Ilaro, a popular town in the Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State. Ilaro, home to over 60,000 inhabitants, also boasts of one of the most popular polytechnics in the country. The town is also home to many smugglers, big-time and petty. I visited popular locations smugglers would usually ply while transporting contrabands.

The places I visited were Sabo, Library and Orita.

During my tour of the three locations, all I saw were people in vehicles and on motorcycles, and they did not carry commodities that looked like smuggled goods.

“We have not been seeing them for quite a while now. I, personally, have not set my eyes on any rice carrier either on bike or even in a vehicle for more than a week now,” a petty trader, whom I bought a bottle of water from, said to me.

“Since I became a resident of this town many years ago, I am not sure I have seen anything like this before. You can’t be at my shop for three minutes and not see at least a motorbike laden with up to 10 bags of rice or turkey pass by.

READ MORE: 19 Days After, Nigeria Customs Yet to Address FIJ’s Smuggling Exposé

“You would also see vehicles stuffed with multiple bags of rice pass by. What we are experiencing is surprising.”

After this, I asked the trader if she knew what was responsible for the scarcity of smugglers in the town.

“I am not really sure o, but one of my customers told me that customs officers and the Fayawo people recently had a disagreement. That was why the customs banned the Fayawos from operating,” the trader said.

“In the past, Fayawo people would enter Ilaro with their goods from neighbouring villages that had many routes, like Ijado, Ijona, Gbokoto and Egbo.

“But since last week, I have not seen any of them pass by my shop.”

I headed towards the polytechnic area, where I also spent a lengthy period at my new location to see if I would see a smuggler pass by or record any act of smuggling.

In the end, I did not see any.

I spent a total of 1 hour and 50 minutes in Ilaro before heading to Oja Odan.

FROM ILARO TO OJA ODAN, FUEL SMUGGLERS SIGHTED

The Expressway Leading to Oja-Odan From Ilaro

On my way to Oja Odan from Ilaro, I passed major settlements like Olorulekan and Ebute.

It was in Olorulekan that I first sighted a smuggler. He had up to 10 jerrycans strapped to his motorcycle. Out of curiosity, I asked the rider taking me to Oja-Odan what he thought the jerrycans could contain.

“Ah! The one (motorcycle rider) you just saw is carrying empty jerrycans o,” the rider said.

“He is actually coming from a location inside Benin Republic. What riders like him do is bring in many empty jerrycans from Benin Republic into Ogun State, get them filled with petrol and then smuggle them back into Benin Republic.

“Petrol is always in high demand in Benin Republic. It fetches some people good money.”

After the first rider, I sighted another rider with the same number of jerrycans strapped to his motorcycle. Then another one, and another one, till they became countless as we passed through Ebute and then eventually got to Oja Odan.

OJA-ODAN NOT DIFFERENT FROM ILARO

What I observed in Oja-Odan was not in any way different from what I had witnessed in Ilaro. All I saw were people in vehicles and on motorcycles going about their businesses. I also saw some farmers who looked like they were returning home from their farms with freshly-harvested vegetables and cassava.

I could not find any vehicle or motorcycle rider who had smuggled either rice or frozen foods into Nigeria from the neighbouring French-speaking country.

The only striking difference between Oja-Odan and Ilaro, however, was that there were many motorcycle riders with jerrycans strapped to their machines in the former.

Just like the rider had told me, and as confirmed by an Oja-Odan resident, the riders had brought the jerrycans into town to get them filled with petrol and then take them back to Benin Republic, where it is in high demand.

“Petrol is always in high demand in Benin Republic. At times, some smugglers would always bring rice into Nigeria and then take petrol back to Benin Republic,” an Oja-Odan resident, who simply identified himself as Arole, said to me.

“The funniest part is that, when you get to Benin Republic, you will always see small shops that are not bigger than the garri stands we have in our community acting as fuel stations.

“It is the fuel that gets smuggled from here that they sell for exorbitant amounts there.”

FUEL SMUGGLERS AT IKOTUN

When I got to Ikotun, a settlement after Oja-Odan, I was able to speak to one of the jerrycan smugglers, who introduced himself as Adaba.

Interestingly, Adaba in Yoruba means dove.

Adaba had saddled his motorcycle with 10 jerrycans of petrol and was on his way to Benin Republic. To get to his destination, he planned journeying through one of the many illegal smuggling routes in the area.

When I asked him if the jerrycans of fuel on his motorcycle were his, he said they were for a client in Benin Republic.

“I do not have the kind of money for this kind of business yet,” Adaba said with a smile.

“All I do is to take the jerrycans to Oja-Odan, get them filled with petrol and return them to the owner in Benin Republic.”

When I asked Adaba to tell me how much he makes from each trip, he simply smiled and chose not to respond to my question.

“All I can say is that this is how I feed my family presently,” Adaba later said to me.

“I also help people cultivate crops on their farms, but this does not happen every time. This is what brings money to me presently.”

When I asked Adaba whether he usually encountered challenges in the course of getting the jerrycans of petrol to their destination, he responded to me in clear terms.

“Once you know your way and the routes to take on this job, you will never have issues with people’s goods,” Adaba said.

He added that there were times he had to grease the palms of customs officers at their checkpoints so he could be allowed to get to his destination easily.

THE DEVELOPMENT AT CUSTOMS ROAD BLOCKS

A motorcycle laden with jerrycans of petrol

I returned to Ilaro via the same route and still did not notice any change in what I had earlier seen. There were no smugglers carrying bags of rice, turkey and chicken into Ogun State from Benin Republic.

It is also noteworthy that I did spot a development at the customs checkpoints I came across on my way back. In my interaction with Adaba, he said fuel smugglers would always grease palms when they got to customs checkpoints. I indeed saw that happen twice at the checkpoints.

Adaba had said he and other smugglers would often give the officers N200 while passing their checkpoints.

CUSTOMS MUM SINCE INVESTIGATION

The Nigeria Customs Service, under the command of Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, its comptroller-general, has continued to keep mum since “Undercover as a Smuggler” was published on February 21. It has neither reacted to the report via a press statement nor made its plans to tighten the borders known.

It is, however, clear that if rice, turkey and chicken smuggling could be temporarily suspended by the principal actors involved in the illegal importation of goods into the country, smuggling could be stopped.

The question is, will the powerful figures who have always profited from it ever allow that to happen?

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