Customs Plans To Fight Smuggling With Drones

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), on Monday said it was thinking of procuring drones and unmanned area vehicles to bring the boarder criminals to their kneels in a bid to strengthen other means of anti-smuggling battle,

The Deputy Comptroller-General, Enforcement and Investigation, Aminu Dangaladima  broke the news to reporters in a media briefing on the presentation of additional 30 patrol vehicles in Abuja.

Asked whether the Nigeria Customs was also thinking of fighting smuggling with technology, he noted that the patrol vehicles were part of the technology that the organization was deploying to fight criminal activities.

Continuing, he said: “We are thinking of having drones. We are trying to bring in Air Force. And we are also trying to have something like Unmanned Area vehicles that can also assist us. That will go a long way. So it is in progress God willing.”

He said the service was not fighting the anti-smuggling battle alone, adding that it was working in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy in terms of seaport security.

According to him, the Federal Government had given the NCS much and much was expected from it in terms of revenue generation.

Dangaladima noted that once the organization blocked all the leakages .

Earlier, he said that the additional 30 Toyota Hilux Patrol Vehicles were all equipped with the necessary apparatus for the purpose of patrol duties.

He recalled that the first batch of 20 vehicles were presented to the public on June 11, stressing that it was all part of government’s effort at curtailing smuggling of prohibited items, especially rice.

He pointed out that with the robust support of the federal government, the service was  better positioned to deal with enemies of Nigeria’s security and economic prosperity ruthlessly.

With the vehicles, Dangaladima said, the response time at the scene of any smuggling activity would be swift and decisive.

He charged the officers that would use the vehicles to adhere to the Comprtoller-General, Col. Hameed Ali’s commitment to proper use of the vehicles for the attainment of the desired results.

He appealed to the general public, especially the boarder community dwellers to support the NCS with useful information on smuggling activities around their communities.