By Pascal Ibe

Claim

An X user, @dipoaina claimed that the containers carrying arms seized by Nigerian Customs were heading to Abia State.

Verdict

This claim is MISLEADING. The Nigerian Customs indeed intercepted containers loaded with arms at Onne Port in Rivers State in June 2024. However, the NCS authorities didn’t disclose where the containers were heading before it was seized. The Customs CG only stated that three suspects were arrested but didn’t give their names.

Full Text

An X user, @dipoaina, has shared a video showing the parade of arms, ammunition, and other light weapons by Nigerian security operatives alongside the claim that containers loaded with these firearms were heading to Abia State before being intercepted.

Abia is one of the five states in Nigeria’s Southeast.

According to @dipoaina, “The customs and other security agencies at Onne port seized 100 containers of imported sophisticated ammunitions that were headed to Abia state, which was about 80km from the seaport.

This post garnered over 304k views and more than 1.5k on the X platform.

Also, more than 705 users reposted this claim as of the time of writing the check.

Verification

First, the Nigerian Customs indeed intercepted containers loaded with assorted arms and ammunition at Onne Port in Rivers State, as shared by @dipoaina, the video first surfaced online in June 2024. This indicates misinformation by the X user for not stating the dates.

Further findings showed that In July 2024, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) paraded nine containers carrying offensive items including arms, ammunition, Illicit drugs, and second-hand clothes worth N13.9 billion at Onne Port, Rivers State.

The Comptroller-General, NCS, Adewale Adeniyi, said one of the containers that originated from Turkey, based on the number of risk factors associated with the importation, became a subject of interest to the service.

However, the Customs boss didn’t disclose where the containers were heading, contrary to the claim by @dipoaina.

Giving details of the container, the CG said, “We have followed its sail across continents and we’ve benefitted immensely from credible information through our collaboration with intelligence communities both at local, national, and international levels,”

According to him, the importer tried to circumvent the procedure through the outlet of a private-bonded terminal

Adeniyi added that three suspects were arrested in connection with the seizures after securing a detention warrant from a competent court of justice.

The Customs CG didn’t give the names of these suspects during his speech.

Part of the speech by the Customs chief reads, “On Friday 21st of June 2024, the auspicious container was subjected to a thorough physical examination. Inside the container were 844 units of assorted riffles and 12,500 pieces of life ammunition,” which Adeniyi said were “concealed with various items like doors, furniture fittings and leather bags.”

On the other containers, Adeniyi said, “On Saturday, our officers intercepted eight pieces of 40-foot containers transiting from a bonded terminal

“On examination, six of the containers were laden with 1.5 million bottles of cough syrup of codeine in 100ml sizes, 3.5m tablets of tramadol. The duty-paid value of the containers is N9.6bn. The total duty paid value of the nine containers is N13.9bn,” the customs boss concluded.

Check other news outlets that reported this story here and here.

Watch full the video of the parade of arms and ammunition at Onne Port here.

Conclusion

The X user, @ainadipo, deliberately recycled a 2024 video and claimed that the containers were heading to Abia State. However, there was no evidence to support the claim.