Customs intercepts 170,000 live bullets

Operatives of the the Nigerian Customs Service have seized 170,000 live bullets from smugglers, in perhaps the biggest ever haul made in decades, officials said on Monday. Ade Fadahunsi, head of the Customs special anti-smuggling squad, said the smugglers abandoned a lorry laden with the illegal goods and fled into the bush early last week when they sighted a roadblock mounted by his men on the highway between Lagos and Benin city in western Nigeria. He said the munitions were hidden beneath empty cartons of bear and heaps of charcoal, and had apparently been smuggled into Nigeria through nearby creeks leading to the Atlantic coast near the country's commercial capital, Lagos from an unnamed neighbouring West African country. "It is the largest seizure made so far," said Fadahunsi, who could not remember when any seizure of comparable quantity was made in the past. He added that the matter had been reported to President Olusegun Obasanjo's office while the seized bullets have been handed over to the police for investigation. "We first referred the matter to the Presidency before it was reported to the Inspector-General of Police who later directed that it should be reported to the Ogun State Police Command (in charge of the area the discovery was made). We have since complied with all the directives," he said. The Nigerian authorities have in recent years expressed concern about the flow of small arms and light weapons across borders in West Africa. Large quantities of arms and ammunition are seized every year being taken across Nigeria's border points, especially the border with Republic of Benin. Security agencies in West Africa have often blamed conflicts in the region, particularly in recent times those of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire for being the source of weapons trafficked across the region. In Nigeria authorities believe these weapons are used in the growing incidents of armed robberies and ethnic and communal clashes which have claimed thousands of lives in the past four years.