Seme: Drama as Customs:...40
Nigerians arrested in Cotonou
By MAURICE ARCHIBONG
Thursday, July 14, 2005
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L-r: NCS Zone A boss ACG Adamu Rabiu with CAC Seme Musa.
Photos: MAURICE ARCHIBONG |
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The south western frontier town of Seme was the theatre
of an unrehearsed but nonetheless ribs cracking drama last
Monday.
The comedy broke out spontaneously; when during the destruction
of seized contraband by operatives of the Nigeria Customs
Service (NCS) at Seme, a teenager suddenly seized a carton
of poultry and sprinted spiritedly towards one of the villages
bordering the local barracks of the NCS.
Although the boy took everyone completely by surprise and
ran with enough speed to have made a positive impression on
Jamaican-born ace sprinter Asafa Powell, he could not make
it home with his loot. Sensing that he would soon be outrun
by an NCS inspector hot on his heels, the teenager dropped
the carton of poultry to make good his escape.
The laughter had hardly died down with the officer returning
to drop the retrieved pack on the heap earmarked for a mass
burial, when with lightening speed another adolescent grabbed
yet another carton of the contraband item and dashed in the
opposite direction. This time, the NCS could not recover the
stolen good because the boy had breasted the tape in a manner
of speaking.
Having fled across the Nigerian border into Benin Republic
territory, the Nigerian officers abandoned their pursuit of
the boy because it would have amounted to an act of illegality
for Nigerian security personnel to enter Benin territory on
official assignment without prior notification to their counterparts
on the other side. The escape of this intruder with his stolen
item once again re-echoed the need for a perimeter fence around
the local NCS barracks, which lies adjacent to Krake Village
in neighbouring Benin Republic. Over the years, there have
been numerous complaints by inhabitants of this barracks of
invasion, intrusion and theft allegedly perpetrated by hoodlums
operating from the Beninese side of the frontier.
Furthermore, the audacious attempts by the two boys to steal
poultry items right under the glare of dozens of armed security
operatives underscores the level of desperation among the
youths of this border’s surrounding settlements.
The drama took place around 6 pm last Monday, when officers
and men of the NCS, Port Health Services, among others, gathered
to carry out or witness the destruction of 748 cartoons of
poultry products seized from smugglers by Customs officers
the preceding weekend. At an estimated price of N4, 000 per
cartoon, the value of that weekend’s poultry seizure,
which amounted to almost N3 million, is one of the biggest
busts of poultry items smuggling attempts in recent times.
Numerous other seizures of poultry products and their subsequent
mass burial have been taking place at Seme over the years.
The "cemetery" lies between the southern wing of
the NCS barracks and the shores of the Atlantic Ocean at Seme.
During the last exercise, we actually observed that the grass
on the surrounding field shone luxuriantly and the coconut
trees in that area appeared richer and more productive. The
muse that crossed our mind here was that this surrounding
flora could hardly have found better manure than tons of poultry
products, which are frequently interred here.
As with other cases of such exercises in the past, a huge
crowd of onlookers, many of them passersby and possibly, some
smugglers too, had gathered around the scene, and some could
be heard murmuring "why the seized items were not donated
to orphanages, instead of being wasted".
During a previous exercise (on Monday May 24, 2004), we had
raised the same issue with the Seme Customs Area Comptroller
(CAC) Musa Tahir, who explained: "I think, the best thing
to do is to destroy these products. They are not fit for human
consumption. We understand that some of the chemicals used
in preserving them are the same used in mortuaries to embalm
corpses. Moreover, these things have been in storage for quite
a very, very long time. If, you’ve ever tasted these
things, you would have noticed they are tasteless and very,
very hard and abnormal. So, you’ll agree with me that
the last group of people we want to hurt are orphans and motherless
babies.
Barely three months after Musa assumed duty as CAC, Seme his
command had recorded a massive seizure of various contrabands.
And the tempo has been sustained ever since. Musa said he
does not find the situation staggering at all. He is not a
stranger to the Seme Area Command of NCS. "To me, Seme
is a familiar terrain. I know exactly what happens here. And
I think I am equal to the task". He had in the past served
in that command as a Customs Intelligence Officer and in the
100 Percent Examination Corps. These had certainly prepared
this officer for his current position, given his achievements
since assuming duties here.
Hear him: "We make seizures almost on a daily basis.
The kind of smuggling people engage in here is not the type
witnessed in other areas. Here, the smugglers take things
across in trickles. They walk across with two cartons or three
cartons but in a day, they could smuggle a whole trailer load
of an item. So, we have to intercept them with their two cartons
or three cartons".
Cotonou
Sun Travels later crossed the border and headed to the Beninese
economic capital, where we uncovered another story.
With the remains of three Nigerians still in the morgue since
they were killed in Benin more than two months ago, apart
from another 100 arrested and tried consequent upon a protest
embarked on by some Nigerians in Cotonou, another 40 Nigerians
were again arrested on Thursday June 30. Apart from the Nigerians,
some other nationals including Cameroonian, Nigerien and two
Benin Republic indigenes were also picked up and detained
on that day. All these detainees were said to be street traders.
Selling along a major road or street trading is prohibited
in that neighbouring country. Apart from being arrested, the
wares of these hawkers were also seized.
The detainees would have subsequently faced trial and possible
imprisonment, if convicted but for the timely intervention
of some Nigerian community leaders, notably Chief Uko Elendu,
Alhaji Lateef Olujobi and Chief Ebuka Onunkwo; Nigerian Community
Union (NCU) president and secretary as well as Igbo Union
Cotonou (IUC) leader respectively. Again, Elendu and Onunkwo
got the detainees off the hook. Moreover, the traders' wares
were even returned. Our visit to Chief Elendu's office in
Cotonou coincided with when the affected petty merchants assembled
there to recover their goods, which the Beninese authorities
had handed over to the NCU and IUC leaders.
Sun Travels saw Chiefs Elendu and Onunkwo, Alhaji Olujobi,
Mr. Okezie Mgbeahurike, among others, giving back the hawkers
their wares. During a brief chat with Onunkwo, the Igbo Union
leader confirmed that all the arrested Nigerians were released.
On top of that, the intervention of the Nigerian leaders also
saw the Beninese and other nationals arrested the same day,
over the same offence, being set free, we gathered.
However, Onunkwo had a word of caution for his constituents:
"I've told them (the traders) to respect the laws of
the land, which prohibits street trading.
"I also told them to henceforth spare me the ordeal of
having to plead for the release of any one that flouts the
law. I don't think I'll come out to work for the release of
any one arrested for street trading in the future", the
IUC leader remarked.
When asked the response of the traders to his warning, the
chief said the boys asked him to help them find other jobs.
"I know that they have to earn a living but I'm not labour
minister. I already have enough wards on my hands, so I advised
them to explore other alternatives, such as working under
an established trader for a while", he concluded.
City lowdown
Now, a few words on the Beninese economic capital, which about
a decade ago held an estimated 500, 000 inhabitants. It is
widely believed that a million or more people now live in
Cotonou, whereas this ville’s population was barely
250,000 in the 1960s. Expectedly, this huge rise in the number
of this town's dwellers is taking its toll on the efficiency
of public utilities. For example, black outs, which used to
be very rare indeed in Cotonou, have become frequent since
December last year.
Moreover, this city's hitherto fresh atmosphere has become
rather polluted, and the situation is worsening with the ever-increasing
rise in the number of "okada" all over town.
Ask many people the capital of Benin Republic and most would
say Cotonou. This is wrong. Although Cotonou has evolved into
the economic capital of Republique du Benin, Porto Novo remains
the de jure seat of government of this West African nation.
But not nearly enough people know this.
It is easy to see why Cotonou has come to overshadow Porto
Novo. Cotonou holds Benin Republic’s only international
airport, that country’s central bank and almost all
the foreign diplomatic missions, too. Although there’s
a presidential villa in Porto Novo, the Beninese or Beninoise
head of state lives in and operates from Cotonou. Again, although
there is a parliamentary building in Porto Novo, the national
assembly sits in Cotonou. Furthermore, against the rather
remote location of the de jure capital, Cotonou lies on the
way of most travellers shuttling between Nigeria, on the eastern
end of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),
and other countries in the African sub-region.
Cotonou is continually expanding. Barely 30 years ago, you
could see all you needed to see of this port settlement on
the southeastern fringes of Benin Republic within six hours.
Nowadays, that would be well nigh impossible. Where are you
going to start? Roughly, today’s Cotonou stretches eastwards
as far as Sekandji (barely 15 km from Nigeria) and to Cocotomey,
some 20 km to the west. In between, Cotonou boasts numerous
urban settlements, Degakon, Guinkomey, Jericho, Vedoko, Cadjehoun,
Kouhounou, Adjarra and so on.
Thirty years ago, Cotonou revolved around Akpakpa, the local
seaport, the Marina, Tokpa Market, Halles des Arts (the local
cultural center) and a few other places of interest not that
far from Sacre Coeur, the local Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Over the years, however, things have changed so much around
here that many of this city’s residents would come up
with the wrong answer, if asked which part of town the city
centre stands. Successive developments and location of strategic
public buildings have edged the city center to the fringes.
Once upon a time, the most prominent roundabout in this town
was Carrefour Beninoise, apparently because it stood close
to the city centre. Expectedly, many government and private
outfits, including this town’s biggest movie-house Cinema
Concorde, gravitated toward the city centre: Not any more.
Now, Beninoise roundabout is more popularly called Carrefour
Sobebra. Sobebra, an acronym from Societe Beninoise de Brasserie,
is the state-controlled brewing and bottling company.
From some road signs, the first-time visitor could miss his/her
way around Cotonou. The names of certain shops, such as Pharmacie
Nouveau Pont, Telecentre Nouveau Pont, and others, leading
to one mouth of a bridge could prove very misleading. Nouveau
Pont translates as new bridge but the bridge in question is
no longer the newest in town.
Until a few months ago, this bridge, named Tokpa after the
river over which it stands, was Cotonou’s new bridge.
Tokpa Bridge led to the town’s two biggest markets,
Tokpa and Missebo as well as a motor park, where most passengers
heading towards the Togolese capital, Lome and the frontier
settlement of Aflao or Accra, seat of the Ghanaian Government
board bush taxis. Furthermore, Tokpa Bridge washed into Avenue
de La Republique, which holds many banks, travel agencies,
the local arts and craft center, Halles des Arts, Ministry
of communication and so on.
Consequently, Tokpa Bridge more or less overshadowed Ancien
Pont, the old bridge that linked to Carrefour Benin and led
straight to Avenue Clozel, along which the city’s first
Catholic Church Cathedrale Notre Dame (Our Lady’s Cathedral)
stands, to the local seaport and beyond this, to the airport
through the Marina. Cathedrale Notre Dame clocked 100 years
on August 14, 2001. In other words, Christianity got here
ages ago. Portuguese slave merchants probably introduced this
faith to the locals. Cotonou was a notable port during those
days of despicable slave trade.
This town’s name, we gathered, derives from a Fon phrase,
Ku tonu, which translates as "mouth of the river of death".
Fon, Adjatse, Gun and dozens of other ethnic groups make up
the indigenous population of this nation of barely 5 million.
Despite the arrival of Christianity on these shores centuries
ago, and the countless minarets dotting this city’s
skyline, the official state religion of Benin Republic is
Voodoo. It’s impossible for the uninitiated to tell
what its practice entails, and those baptized into this traditional
religion would not reveal its secrets. In any case, the emergence
of this faith in Haiti is some confirmation that many slaves
were uprooted from this part of West Africa. But let’s
return to Cotonou’s Marina.
The marina, initially called Boulevard de Marina was renamed
Avenue de France Marina, in honour of colonial master France.
Following the visit of then Catholic Pontiff to Benin Republic,
the road was re-christened Avenue Jean Paul II. Apart from
the port, Cotonou Marina hosts the Presidential Villa, many
embassies, an international conference center, the local Novotel
and many other institutions. But then big outfits also began
opening elsewhere, especially along Boulevard Saint Michel,
Avenue Steinmetz and Avenue Van Hollehaven.
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