The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Monday, August 17, 2026, officially handed over 399 fully assembled rifles and a significant quantity of assorted firearm components to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW).
The transfer, aimed at facilitating further investigation, custody, and prosecution, took place at the Tin Can Island Port Command in Lagos State.
​The seized armaments were intercepted aboard the vessel MV Velika after being flagged by the service’s automated risk-management tools and Trade Modernisation platform.
Following a comprehensive coupling, physical inspection, and documentation, the arms inventory yielded 399 Jojef-type rifles alongside critical component parts, including 89 frames, 80 charging handles, 579 trigger groups, and 25 locking lugs.
​Speaking during the morning ceremony, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Dr. Adewale Adeniyi, highlighted the role of technology in preventing illicit shipments from reaching their destinations.
​”Under the Trade Modernisation Project, we have replaced manual processes with B’Odogwu, which brings automated risk management, cargo tracking, and non-intrusive inspection onto a single platform,” Adeniyi stated.
“What technology gives us is the ability to know which container to open. What you are looking at this morning is that capability doing precisely what it was built to do.”
​Adeniyi also raised concerns over arms trafficking as the country prepares for its upcoming election cycle, warning that criminal networks often attempt to exploit international trade routes, ports, and borders during such periods.
He added that two suspects, identified as Robert Eze and Ejiogu Godson—were arrested in connection with the consignment and have been remanded by the Federal High Court in Lagos.
​Receiving the arms haul on behalf of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Director-General of the NCCSALW, retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police Johnson Babatunde Kokumo, commended the NCS for its vigilance and intelligence-driven enforcement.
Kokumo emphasized that the inter-agency collaboration marks a vital step toward dismantling arms trafficking syndicates and curbing the proliferation of illegal weapons across the nation.
