By GODWIN ORITSE
LAGOS — Comptroller of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Mr Jack Bot, was yesterday arrested by men of the Nigeria Police force for alleged gun-running while on official duty in Niger State.
The Comptroller in the Inspectorate Division of the Service was fingered in an on-going investigation into illegal procurement of weapons from the Police armoury.
Also, another junior officer, Shehu Ahmed, who worked with Jack as his orderly in Minna who is alleged to have been an accomplice in the crime was also handed over to the Police.
A statement by the service spokesman, Mr Adewale Adeniyi said the officers were personally handed over to the Police by the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdulahi Dikko, following intelligence report on their activities while in Niger State.
In a brief statement before handing over the officers, Dikko said the service would not harbour gun-runners whose activities constitute a threat to national security.
He said: "Despite the fact that the investigating officers came to my office without a warrant of arrest, I decided to produce the officers on account of the weight of allegations levelled against them."
According to Adeniyi, the offence was alleged to have been committed in Minna, Niger State sometimes in 2002, when Jack was an Assistant Comptroller of Customs.
Some senior Customs officers who spoke to Vanguard on condition of anonymity said the officers should be made to face the full wrath of the law if they were found culpable.
Vanguard Nigeria