Because Nigeria’s border stations are porous, experts and analysts in the maritime and security sectors have examined trading activities there and concluded that, absent significant action, criminals and economic saboteurs will continue to exploit the porosity and other unapproved routes to wreak havoc on Nigerians and the country’s economy.
In reality, criminals attempt to smuggle in and out illegal products, including contraband, in an effort to weaken the national economy. Others attempt to underpay for dutiable products and avoid paying duties in order to defraud the government.
Traces of human trafficking are not uncommon throughout the nation’s permeable borders, even in the midst of criminal tendencies.
Some observers believe that aside from implementing current technologies to secure the borders and environment, there is little the nation can do right now to address the porous borders and criminal activity occurring there.
Experts say that one must first recognize that Nigeria is bounded on one side by Cameroon and the Benin Republic. Each of these nations is a francophone nation. By Niger and others in the North.
It is important to highlight that trade between the majority of these nations and Nigeria is not as seamless as it should be.
This is due to the fact that certain items that are forbidden from entering Nigeria and its ports are permitted there; consequently, smugglers exploit this situation to import those items into Nigeria.
For example, it is prohibited for goods like rice to enter Nigeria across the country’s land boundaries.
But the Benin Republic permits that. Rice enters Benin as a result of the close proximity, and they attempt to smuggle it into Nigeria via the land boundaries.
Furthermore, there are numerous border spaces when one looks at the way Nigeria’s borders are drawn. According to an analyst, this is a sign “that even when all the security agencies are placed along the border to man the lands and across a single line, they won’t be able to monitor all the border spaces at once.”
When Comptroller Ben Oramalugo, PhD, took over as the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Customs Service (NCS) Seme Border Command, he must have been thinking about all of these difficulties.
With his many successes in trade facilitation and anti-smuggling, Oramalugo has sent a warning to economic saboteurs who continue to engage in illegal trade along the corridor using unapproved routes: either stop or face consequences because his agents are not giving up on their mission to ensure that the criminals and economic saboteurs are apprehended.
The Customs head said that in addition to arresting them, their illicit items would be seized. They would also continue to record their losses while meeting with the appropriate courts.
Indeed, the NCS, Seme border area command recently declared that it has stepped up its efforts to combat economic saboteurs who are determined to smuggle illegal commodities and other items that are not allowed to enter the nation through the land borders.
Following this assault, the Command revealed that it had stopped and confiscated 898 packages of Cannabis Sativa, commonly referred to as Indian hemp, from hard drug traffickers.
Additionally, the Command revealed that between July 1 and July 19, 2025, it stopped and sized five trucks that were transporting 2,800 bags of 50 kg foreign rice, totaling N919.5 million in duty-paid value.
According to Oramalugo PhD, Customs Area Controller (CAC), who made this revelation during a press conference in Lagos, the command also seized 1,319 more bags of rice, increasing the total seizures to 4,119 bags during the reviewed period.
Idris Ibrahim Mohamed, the representative of the NDLEA Commandant in-charge of the Agency’s Seme Border Command, accepted the confiscated Cannabis Sativa after it was turned over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Seme Area Command.
Dr. Oramalugo credited his command’s agents along the Lagos-Abidjan corridor with gathering reliable intelligence that led to the seizures.
He said the five vehicles were stopped carrying 250 bales of used clothes and 2,800 sacks of grains.
He also disclosed that the command seized 40 bags of sugar, 64 bags of wheat, and 50 cartons of tomato ketchup between June 14 and June 30, 2025.
Twenty bales of discarded clothing, four bales of worn shoes, and one boat with an engine were also stopped and taken by the Command’s agents.
According to the Customs boss, the total Duty Paid Value (DPV) for all seizures was N1,268,794,474.
With assistance from the Nigerian military and other organizations, the CAC stated that the results were the result of the diligence and dedication of the officers and soldiers of the Seme Command.
In order to help local producers and lessen Nigerians’ reliance on importing and consuming foreign rice, Buhari reaffirmed the Federal Government’s prohibition on rice imports across land borders.
“With an annual output exceeding 8 million metric tonnes, Nigeria is Africa’s largest producer of rice, surpassing Egypt and Tanzania,” he stated.
“But our rice mills still have problems because they don’t get enough business, which makes it hard for them to run at their best,” he stated.
According to the CAC, at that time, the command enabled trade and the transportation of 1,837 trucks, which is equal to more than 116,723.26MT of commodities produced in Nigeria.
The Free On Board (FOB) value of these exports was N22,368,388,976.10k. However, the fees for the National Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) were just N111,841,944.87K.
He revealed that the Command made N1,593,676,123.26 in total revenue between May and July 2025.
He bemoaned the fact that certain people continued to smuggle, which was impeding Nigeria’s economic development.
Seme Command will not allow any kind of illegal trading or smuggling within its borders, he warned.
“I’m telling Nigerians that we are on top of our work,” the CAC stated in response to questioning from reporters. We are assuring Nigerians that their country’s rice mills would keep expanding and that they will continue to receive business. Nigeria should produce the rice, and Nigerians should buy from them. Additionally, we would want to inform them that smugglers and smuggling do not reside in Seme.
In addition to ensuring that uncustomed products do not enter Nigeria, we are also ensuring that revenue is received by the Federal Government. At one point, they even asserted that rice was entering via the Seme border and that it was killing people. It’s untrue. To damage our reputation, it is merely propaganda. Their jealousy is the reason behind their statements. The CGC and his management team are supporting us in carrying out our duties here. The CG advised me to carry out my duties fearlessly and with the knowledge that he is on my side.
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The CAC insisted that both the trucks and their contents had been confiscated in compliance with the law when questioned if the drivers of the trucks that were captured carrying illicit rice had been arrested. They said that when operatives closed in on them, the drivers ran into the bush and abandoned their vehicles.
The CAC bemoaned the fact that smugglers are still drawn to it out of greed.
He said that Nigeria is superior to other African nations and that they should make the most of their 955,000 square kilometers of land instead of using it for criminal activities.
We import almost 3 billion tons of palm oil, in case you were unaware. Indeed. We rank fifth globally in terms of palm oil production. We are prepared to risk everything for the smugglers. That’s what I’ve been doing. The others must quit smuggling if you don’t mind taking that chance. They will claim that here is where they were born, that their great-great fathers resided, and that they work in the same industry. However, I can assure you that they have a plethora of other legal business options.
With 50 million metric tons, Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil. Malaysia, with 19 million metric tons, came next. The sixth is Nigeria. Those nations visited us in the 1960s to pick up our palm seedlings. This is now being exported to us. The average demand in Nigeria is roughly 3 million metric tons.
Up to 1.5 million metric tons are not produced by us. Thus, the gap remains. Therefore, we can create more and export if the Nigerians here put forth a lot of effort. Additionally, palm oil costs more on the market than crude oil.
The price of a barrel of crude oil is currently at $67. However, a barrel of palm oil costs roughly $80 to $90.
The 2,800 is that number. The 1,319 seizures that are occurring on this field are then what you are witnessing. Thus, the five trucks that we received throughout the operations carried 2,800 tons of rice in total. Please remember that.
