The
Nigeria Customs Service on Thursday said that it had released former
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s autobiography titled, My Watch.
The News Agency of Nigeria reported that
the NCS Comptroller-General, Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi, made the
disclosure to newsmen when he inaugurated two new patrol boats of the
service in Lagos.
Abdullahi said that the container was
released following the vacation of an FCT High Court order restraining
the former President from publishing, printing or offering for sale, his
autobiography titled, “My Watch’’ on Tuesday.
“Customs got the initial order of the
court to stop the container and now that the court asks us to release
the container, so be it,” he said.
Justice Valentine Ashi had ordered the release of the books which had been in the custody of customs.
Ashi, in a ruling, upheld the argument
by Obasanjo’s counsel, Kanu Agabi (SAN), that the court was misled into
granting the orders on December 5 and Decemeber10, 2014.
The court had granted the orders on
December 5, 2014, restraining Obasanjo from publishing his book in the
country pending the determination of the suit filed against him by a
chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP], Buruji Kashamu.
Despite the December 5 order, Obasanjo
proceeded to launch the book on December 9 in Lagos, a development that
prompted the court to make the orders of December 10.
Ashi also restrained the comptroller-general from charging demurrage on copies of the book already confiscated.
Abdullahi described the new patrol boats
acquired by the service as equipment needed to perform its exemplary
functions in line with President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation
agenda for the service to excel.
He said it took two years to build the
boats, adding that the Customs supervised the construction of the boats
to meet it specification.
“We have two boats for now. We will watch their performance and see if there is need to have more.
“With the performance of the boats government will not hesitate to give us more money to buy more,” he said.
He recalled that one of the boats was
named after nine customs officers killed some years ago by smugglers of
petrol on the high sea while they were on official duty.
“It is a bad memory. Nine of my officers were really killed on the high sea by smugglers who were carrying petrol.”
Source: Elombah
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