Gentlemen of the Press,

1. Good day and welcome to this important press conference at the Nigeria Customs Service Port Harcourt Area II Command, Onne. Today, we gather to inform you about the recent significant developments in our operations to secure our nation's borders and ensure public safety.
2. Gentlemen of the Press, you may recall that at a press briefing of this nature held recently at the Tin Can Island Port Lagos, I had disclosed attempts by criminal elements seeking to exploit our trade facilitation friendly posture to compromise our processes and procedures. With our robust Risk Management System, we have always remained a step ahead of their moves. When these attempts revolve around revenue generation, our automated audit systems at different level enable us to trace, track and recover the revenue. However, when efforts are geared towards creating actions that will produce irreversible consequences on national security, our alert level is elevated to match the threats posed to us.
3. And so it was the case with this 1X40 foot container MAEU165396, which originated from Turkey, and based on a number of risk factors, became a subject of interest. We had followed its sail across the Continents, as we benefitted immensely from credible information produced through our collaboration with the intelligence communities, both at the local, national and international levels.
4. Working within our local structures, we followed diligently as the Importer attempted to circumvent our procedure through the outlet of a Private Bonded Terminal.  Consequently, on Friday, 21 June 2024, the suspicious container was subjected to thorough physical examination. The examination result revealed the following alarming contents:
   1. Eight Hundred and Forty-Four (844) units of rifles
   2. One Hundred and Twelve Thousand, Five Hundred (112,500) pieces of live ammunition

The breakdown is as follows:

1. 764 units of Tomahawk Jojef Magnum Black Pump Action Rifles
2. 10 units of VC Verney Caron Gunmakers Jojef Magnum Silver Pump Action Rifles

• 50 units of VC Verney Caron Gunmaker Double Barrel Rifles

1. 20 units of VC Verney Caron Gunmaker Single Barrel Rifles
2. Exclusive Series, Sterling High-Quality Live Ammunition 34g - 25 Plastic Shotgun Shells (70MM)
3. The rifles and ammunition were concealed using various items such as doors, furniture, plumbing fittings, and leather bags. The duty-paid value of the container is Four Billion, One Hundred and Seventy-One Million, Seven Hundred and Ten Thousand Naira (₦4,171,710,000.00).
4. In connection with this, we have three suspects in our custody after securing a detention warrant from a competent court of justice. Furthermore, a thorough investigation is ongoing to ensure all those involved face the full wrath of the law.
5. In another development, our officers, through synergy, collaboration, and intelligence sharing, on Saturday, 29 June 2024, intercepted yet another 8x40-foot container transit to a bonded warehouse from Onne Port. The container numbers are TCKU6879285, CMAU5985012, CMAU7515384, CMAU4297020, SEKU5488437, BMOU4363156, MRKU4616024, and MRSU3068928. Upon examination, they were found to contain the following:
   Six containers laden with:
   1. 1,050,000 bottles of CSC Cough Syrup with Codeine (100ml)
   2. 3,500,000 tablets of Trodol Benzhexol Tablets (5mg)

• Duty-paid value: Nine Billion, Six Hundred Million Naira

          (₦9,600,000,000.00)

Two containers laden with:

1. 720 bales of used clothes
2. With Duty-paid value: ₦144,000,000.00

The total duty-paid value of the nine displayed containers is Thirteen Billion, Nine Hundred and Fifteen Million, Seven Hundred and Ten Thousand Naira (₦13,915,710,000.00).

8. In line with the provisions of the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023, the following decisions have been taken with respect to these containers:
9. The 40-footer container of evil, bearing 844 units of assorted Rifles and 112,500 pieces of live ammunition is hereby seized, alongside the other contents previously highlighted.
10. The items would be handed over to the Coordinator of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, under the office of the National Security Adviser for diligent investigation, and ultimately rigorous prosecution.

• The suspects arrested would be handed over to the Centre for further processing. We will work diligently with other Agencies of Government to apprehend all other cohorts and Death Merchants involved in this monkey business.

1. The Eight Containers whose contents were wrongly declared to evade duty payment and Prohibition Order are hereby declared seized.
2. The Licences and Permits issued for the operation of all the Warehouses and Terminals as well as those of their Customs Agents involved in these cases are hereby suspended pending the determination of their involvement.
3. Customs Officers who are found complicit in the perpetration of  these nefarious act would be heavily sanctioned in a manner that would be approved by the Board of the Nigeria Customs Service.

• Officers who kept faith with the Oath of allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and refused to be bribed into releasing these containers will be adequately rewarded in a manner provided by the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023.

9. As I conclude, let me warmly commend the professional commitment of the Customs Area Comptroller Onne Port, Mohammed Babandede and through him his Officers and Men, for the meticulous approach deployed to this operation. I also acknowledge our various partners, local and international who provided us the much needed information to successfully prosecute this operation.
10. Finally, this seizure serves as a strong warning to others who may be contemplating similar misadventures, my message to them is simple; we will run you out of business.   The Nigeria Customs Service, under my leadership, will not tolerate any action that compromises the economy and security of our beloved nation.

Thank you for your attention and cooperation.

Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Kingsley Moghalu, has said the removal of fuel subsidy and devaluation of naira by President Bola Tinubu were right policies wrongly implemented.

The Professor of Political Economics said both the petrol (fuel) subsidy and defence of naira by the previous administration of ex-president, Muhammadu Buhari, and CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele was not the best policy for the country.

Moghalu said what was wrong with the execution of the removal of the fuel subsidy and suspension of naira defense against the US Dollar was that President Tinubu failed to put measures in place to cushion the effects of the policy on the citizens.

He said the President “hurriedly”, without proper planning for consequences, removed fuel subsidy. He added that the President announced the floating of the naira without monetary tightening and a substantive CBN governor.

“The petrol subsidy and the forex subsidy were unsustainable. The fact that wrongheaded execution of their removal – removing the petrol subsidy hurriedly without proper planning for consequences and alternative transport solutions for the people, and floating the exchange without first tightening monetary policy and without a substantive Central Bank of Nigeria Governor with a real plan in place — is a very different thing from whether those reforms were needed.

“The issue was, and is, competence of conception and execution. Framing and executing evidence-based public policy is a real challenge for Nigeria and many African countries. I say this because the reality of the suffering faced by Nigerians should not confuse us as to why the situation is this way. My position on the fuel subsidy and exchange rate subsidy, given our country’s fiscal realities in 2023, remains consistent and not populist,” the former CBN Deputy Governor said.

Experts have continued to question “fuel subsidy is gone” statement of President Tinubu on his inauguration day on May 29, 2023. Also questioned was the government’s decision to allow naira to gain its strength against foreign currency.

An Economist, Olayiwola Adejare Lawal, in an interview, said Nigeria’s economy being import-dependent requires subsidies to grow.

Lawal said the federal government’s decision was against the local economics of Nigeria. He said economic advice against fuel subsidy and in support of naira floating would affect Nigeria’s economy.

Moghalu, however, said if policies to incentivize productivity and exports were put on ground before the fuel subsidy removal and naira float were carried out, the policy would have been beneficial.

The President of the Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation Africa further said the leaders have also failed to sacrifice while asking citizens to bear the pains of necessary but poorly executed policy,

“Beyond this, executing painful reforms requires the legitimacy of shared sacrifice. That such a sacrifice on the part of the political leaders of Nigeria is absent, while asking citizens to bear the pain of necessary (although incompetently executed) reforms damages the legitimacy of the reforms.

“If it is accompanied by policies to incentive productivity and exports it would be beneficial,” he added.

A far-right, anti-immigration party is in reach of becoming the biggest political force in France after the first of two rounds of voting in parliamentary elections drew a historically high turnout. The first-round results in the French election are the latest evidence of surging support for the far-right in Europe, but the real test of that trend nationally will come when France opens the polls for the second, decisive round of voting in one week.

French President Emmanuel Macron took a huge gamble by calling the snap election this year, and he's now issued a battle cry urging the nation's voters to come out in force on July 7 to stop the far-right, which made its best showing ever in round one, from rising to the very top of government in round two.

Turnout was unusually high as many voters said they either wanted to block the far-right, or just get rid of Macron's government.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said her National Rally party had "virtually wiped out" Macron's centrist power base in the first-round Sunday vote. National Rally took a third of the votes in that round.

Macron called these elections hoping to rally voters against the far-right, after parties like Le Pen's fared well in Europe-wide elections for the European parliament, which governs the European Union, in the spring.

"President Macron made a colossal error in judgment," political analyst Douglas Webber told CBS News. Webber said the first round results show Macron could be forced to share power with National Rally — a party that is anti-immigration, wants to roll back the power of the European Union, and has even threatened to pull France out of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.

If the National Rally wins enough votes in the second round, party president Jordan Bardella could find himself in the country's second-top job, as prime minister. He wants to pull back on France's support for Ukraine in the face of Russia's ongoing invasion.

"That would be a very good result for Vladimir Putin, a very bad result for Ukraine and President Zelenskyy," said Webber.

That outcome is not a foregone conclusion. The French have a history of voting more ideologically in the first round — "with their hearts," as the saying goes — but then more tactically, "with their heads," in the second round.

Macron and the thousands of left-wing supporters who gathered in central Paris on Sunday to voice their concern at the far-right's performance will be hoping that's the case, and that the actual gains in parliamentary seats won't mirror the windfall seen for Le Pen and Bardella's party in round-one.

"Right now, we have big problems with the right wing," said one young woman before the results came in. "We want more democracy, you know, we don't want people to feel afraid or scared about living in France."

But the political winds across much of the continent have been blowing decidedly to the right for more than a year. Should the far-right parties win big in France on July 7, Webber warned it could leave a power "vacuum at the heart of Europe," which has been dominated for years by the influence of its two biggest economies, France and Germany.

"No one, or no other group of countries, could conceivably fill the role that's historically been played by France and Germany," he said. "That's, of course, the main reason why so many people, observers, are extremely worried."

Among the worried Europeans voicing their angst on Monday was Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who said the first-round results in France indicated a "very dangerous" political turn.

"This is all really starting to smell very dangerous," said Tusk, who suggested without offering specific evidence that "Russian influence" was behind the rise of "many parties of the radical right in Europe."

"Even the complete victory of the radical right of Ms. Le Pen's camp does not signal the loss of power by the center represented by President Macron," Tusk told reporters. "But it is a very clear sign of what is happening not only in France, but also in some other countries, also in Western Europe."

Tusk said France "will be forced to confront these radical forces," and he warned that, "foreign forces and enemies of Europe are engaged in this process, hiding behind these movements."

Macron has called on voters from across the political spectrum to block the far-right's precipitous rise with their votes in the final round on Sunday.

[CBS]

The United Kingdom will hold its first national election in almost five years on Thursday, with opinion polls suggesting that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party will be punished for failing to deliver on promises made during 14 years in power.

The center-right Conservatives took power during the depths of the global financial crisis and have won three more elections since then. But those years have been marked by a sluggish economy, declining public services and a series of scandals, making the Tories, as they are commonly known, easy targets for critics on the left and right.

The Labour Party, which leans to the left, is far ahead in most opinion polls after focusing its campaign on a single word: Change.

But the Tories face other challenges as well. The new Reform Party is siphoning off votes from the rightwing of the Conservatives after criticizing the Tory leadership for failing to control immigration.

How will the election work?

People throughout the United Kingdom will elect all 650 members of the House of Commons, one for each local constituency. There are no primaries or run-offs, just a single round of voting on July 4.

Britain uses a “first past the post” system of voting, which means that the candidate that finishes top in each constituency will be elected, even if they don’t get 50% of the vote. This has generally cemented the dominance of the two largest parties, Conservatives and Labour, because it is difficult for smaller parties to win seats unless they have concentrated support in particular areas.

How is the prime minister chosen?

The party that commands a majority in the Commons, either alone or with the support of another party, will form the next government and its leader will be prime minister.

That means the results will determine the political direction of the government, which has been led by the center-right Conservatives for the past 14 years. The center-left Labour Party is widely seen to be in the strongest position.

Who is running?

Sunak, a former Treasury chief who has been prime minister since October 2022, is leading his party into the election. His primary opponent is Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions in England and leader of the Labour Party since April 2020.

But other parties, some of which have strong regional support, could be crucial to forming a coalition government if no one wins an overall majority.

The Scottish National Party, which campaigns for Scottish independence, the Liberal Democrats, and the Democratic Unionist Party, which seeks to maintain ties between Britain and Northern Ireland, are currently the three largest parties in Parliament after the Conservatives and Labour. Many observers suggest the new Reform Party, fronted by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, may siphon votes from the Conservatives.

Why are the Conservatives under pressure?

The Conservatives have faced one challenge after another since they took power in 2010. First there was the fallout from the global financial crisis, which swelled Britain’s debt and caused the Tories to impose years of austerity to balance the budget. They then led Britain out of the European Union, battled one of the deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks in western Europe, and saw inflation soar after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Regardless of the circumstances, many voters blame the Conservatives for the litany of problems facing Britain, from sewage spills and unreliable train service to the cost-of-living crisis, crime and the influx of migrants crossing the English Channel on inflatable boats.

On top of that, the party has been tarred by the repeated ethical lapses of government ministers, including lockdown-busting parties in government offices. The scandals chased former Prime Minister Boris Johnson from office and ultimately from Parliament after he was found to have lied to lawmakers. His successor, Liz Truss, lasted just 45 days after her economic policies cratered the economy.

What are the big issues?

The economy: Britain has struggled with high inflation and slow economic growth, which have combined to make most people feel poorer. The Conservatives succeeded in controlling inflation, which slowed to 2% in the year through May after peaking at 11.1% in October 2022, but growth remains sluggish, raising questions about the government’s economic policies.

Immigration: Thousands of asylum seekers and economic migrants have crossed the English Channel in flimsy inflatable boats in recent years, triggering criticism that the government has lost control of Britain’s borders. The Conservatives’ signature policy for stopping the boats is a plan to deport some of these migrants to Rwanda. Critics say the plan violates international law, is inhumane, and will do nothing to stop people fleeing war, unrest and famine.

Health care: Britain’s National Health Service, which provides free health care to everyone, is plagued with long waiting lists for everything from dental care to cancer treatment. Newspapers are filled with stories about seriously ill patients forced to wait hours for an ambulance, then longer still for a hospital bed.

The environment: Sunak has backtracked on a series of environmental commitments, pushing back the deadline for ending the sale of gasoline- and diesel-powered passenger vehicles and authorizing new oil drilling in the North Sea. Critics say these are the wrong policies at a time the world is trying to combat climate change.

Why is the election being held now?

Sunak surprised pundits and most of his own lawmakers six weeks ago when he set the election for July 4, at least three months earlier than expected.

While most observers thought the vote would take place in the fall, Sunak gambled on a summer election, hoping that positive economic news would help him persuade voters that Conservative policies were beginning to work.

The decision was so startling that it landed the Tories in hot water. Allegations have emerged that party members and police officers assigned to protect government officials had placed wagers on a summer election, suggesting they had inside information and damaging Sunak’s ability to claim that his party is more trustworthy than Labour.

Commentators had been speculating about the timing of the election for months because the parliamentary term was scheduled to end in mid-December. While each parliament is elected for up to five years, the prime minister can call an election whenever it is most advantageous politically.

[AP]