2671 gun seizures: Turkish Ambassador, Customs meet, to expose culprits
Turkish ambassador to Nigeria, Hakan Cakil, on Tuesday met with the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) to present findings in hopes of fishing out gun runners.
DAILY TRUST report that Ali expressed concerns of Customs that four different arms seizures with 2,671 Pump Action Rifles, coming from Turkey alone, appears to suggest complicity of Turkish Authority.
A statement by the Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah, said the meeting which lasted for two hours was fruitful with the Ambassador restating his country’s support for Nigeria’s security and wellbeing, saying that Turkey will not support any dangerous shipment to Nigeria.
The statement said all the four shipments intercepted were false declarations on the bills of lading, showing a case of smuggling.
The Turkish Ambassador will immediately communicate to his home country, findings from the Service, with view to fishing out criminals behind the illegal arms shipment to Nigeria, it noted.
“That the Turkish Government will cooperate with Nigeria in every step to deal decisively with those found involved,” the statement added.
Other resolutions at the meeting was that a team from Nigeria Customs will visit the Turkish Customs to further discuss ways of nipping such arms export from turkey as well as strengthening agreement on mutual assistance.
The Service will also provide the Turkish authority, list of prohibited items and for fire arms, provide a sample End User Certificate to enable Turkish authority always verify before approving any legal arms export to Nigeria, they agreed at the meeting.
