Key points

• Customs officers are allegedly escorting smugglers across Nigerian borders under cover of darkness
• A vehicle valuation code called “846” is being used to help importers pay far less duty than they owe
• A plot to push favored junior officers into top Customs jobs is fueling a leadership crisis inside the agency

A wave of smuggling, billions of naira in stolen government revenue and a behind-the-scenes fight over who runs Nigeria Customs Service next are pushing the agency toward its worst crisis in decades, according to multiple sources who spoke to SaharaReporters.

The trouble is growing just weeks after President Bola Tinubu approved a six-month stay for current Comptroller-General Bashir Adewale Adeniyi.

A video obtained by SaharaReporters shows hundreds of smugglers being guided by customs officers at night, moving goods across the border in plain sight.

How a simple code became a tool for stealing government money

At the Apapa, Tincan Island and PTML ports in Lagos, officers are allegedly using a system code called “846” to help rich importers pay far less tax than they should.

The code was originally created to handle vehicles that could not be valued the normal way, such as old models or custom-built cars.

Instead, sources say officers now use it to register brand-new luxury cars and heavy trucks as if they were old, cheap vehicles, so importers pay next to nothing in import duties.

This is not new. Back in 2022, the Tincan Island Customs Area Controller admitted that more than 7,000 vehicle records had been processed through the 846 code wrongly.

Yet the practice has grown worse, not better. Sources say officers now take cash bribes directly from importers and their agents to approve these fake low valuations. One importer previously alleged that the Tincan Island Command collected N500,000 per vehicle to make this happen.

At land borders, the situation is just as bad. Trucks loaded with banned goods, hidden under bags of rice, are crossing at Seme, Idiroko, Ilaro and Ipokia in Ogun State and through the Igbeti-Kishi corridor in Oyo State.

Sources say senior officers posted to these border points are directly involved in organizing the crossings, collecting bribes per truck based on what the vehicle is carrying.

Billions lost as smugglers bring in rice, fuel, cars and weapons

The goods moving through these illegal channels cover a wide range. Rice bags are used to hide other banned items while also being smuggled themselves. Fuel crosses borders because it is cheaper in Nigeria than in neighboring countries.

Frozen chicken, banned from import for years, still flows in freely. New and used vehicles enter through land borders despite a government ban on that practice since 2017.

Sources also say the same smuggling networks carry arms and drugs, though specific details remain classified.

The cost to Nigeria is enormous. The Customs Service disclosed that tax waiver approvals reached about N34 trillion in 2025, which sources say was roughly 61.8 percent of the country’s total budget that year.

Economists have called for a full investigation, warning that the government is losing money it badly needs. You should verify these figures directly from official government sources.

Frank Ogunojemite, President of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria, said in 2023 that clearing agents and customs officers were working together to cheat the government on vehicle taxes.

He called for the prosecution of anyone found guilty, saying public office must no longer be a way to get rich at Nigeria’s expense.

Customs spokesman Abdullahi Maiwada rejected all the allegations. He said the claim of a smuggling surge at the Seme and Ogun borders does not match what is actually happening on the ground, pointing to regular seizures as proof that officers are doing their jobs.

On the 846 code, he said it is a proper digital tool used only for vehicles with unusual identification numbers, and that the manipulation claims misrepresent how the system works. He also dismissed the succession plot allegations as completely without basis.