The recent seizures of 8,200 kilogrammes of pangolin scales and 2,000 kilogrammes of ivory allegedly exported to the country though Apapa port in Lagos is now being investigated, the Minister of Environment, Suleiman Hassan Zarma, said recently.
The Vietnamese Customs Service had also seized over 2,500 kilogrammes of pangolin scales and 600 kilogrammes of ivory tusks said to have allegedly exported to the country though Apapa port.
Zarma said the Ministry has reached out to the Vietnamese officials as part of the investigation on the export of the goods.
According to him, the Vietnamese and Hong Kong CITES Management Authority have been requested to furnish the Ministry with the documents which will be sent to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and INTERPOL for further investigation.
The minister told newsmen, “It was very unsettling when information was received that the Vietnamese Customs made the discovery in concealed containers declared as consigning knocked wood by the Vietnamese company, VIC Thanh Binh Import-Export Company Limited, with office address at Lien Hong Commune, Dan Phuong District, Hanoi.
“More disturbing is the fact that Nigeria was mentioned as the source in spite of our laudable conservation efforts, which informed our leading the war against Illegal Wildlife Trade in the West African Region”
The Minister suspected that Nigeria is being used as a transit route for illegal wildlife trade, adding that the country does not have such high elephant population for the quantity of ivory seized by the foreign countries.
Zarma added, “Nigeria is being used as a transit route for illegal wildlife trade and the image of our nation is being tarnished globally.
Besides, the Minister said Nigeria is part of the countries that signed international convention to fight illegal wildfire trade under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1974.
The Minister explained, “CITES is the pre-eminent global legal instrument for regulating international trade in wild animals and plant and has the objective of ensuring that International trade in wild fauna and flora does not compromise the protection of endangered species, hence the illegal trade in this species and its derivatives are absolutely prohibited”.
It would be recalled that the Nigeria Customs Service had in the past recorded seizures of pangolin scales and ivory tusks. In fact in 2018, over $900m of Pangolin seizures were made by the Nigeria Customs. Sadly however, some of these had passed the nation’s port undetected by the Customs.