Abuja Crooks, Thieves And Liars Network

In interviews with several top officers of the Nigerian Customs and Excise, correspondents of Saharareporters have been told that members of Umaru Yar’adua’s immediate family as well as his close friends are Nigeria’s most notorious smugglers.


In separate detailed interviews, our sources described how 52-year old, Alhaji Dahiru Barau Mangal, Yar’adua’s closest friend and adviser, has emerged as the country’s top cross-border smuggler. The officers also named Hajia Turai Yar’adua, Yar’adua’s wife, as well as her daughters as big players in the burgeoning smuggling rings.

One of the sources, who said he was involved in leaks to the Nigerian press about a ring of high-powered smugglers, said their whistle-blowing was aimed at publicizing a well-known fact. He stated that he and other concerned officers knew that no Nigerian newspaper would have the courage to publish the names of those involved. “That’s why we decided to contact Saharareporters,” said the officer.

“Before Yar’adua came to power, Alhaji Mangal’s smuggling activities were confined to the northern part of the country. But in the last two years, he has extended his smuggling activities to other parts of Nigeria,” said one of the customs officials.

The officers revealed that the shadowy Mangal had built a fortune by smuggling petroleum products through the Republic of Niger. However, with his friend Yar’adua in office as usurper president, Mangal began operating across all Nigerian border entries unhindered. Our sources disclosed that, in some instances, Mangal’s smuggled goods are escorted by Nigerian soldiers in and out of Nigeria. “Only a customs officer who is looking for death will dare to delay his smuggling trucks,” said one of the officers.

Turai Yar'adua
Custom officials told Saharareporters that Mangal’s smuggling operations have changed both in their nature and scope. “He used to be a direct smuggler, dealing mostly with petroleum products,” one of the officers said. Then he added: “Now, his operation includes the safe delivery of contraband goods on behalf of a variety of other smugglers to any destination in Nigeria. All kinds of dubious smugglers hire him to smuggle in their goods for them.”

The officers, who work in different parts of the country, stated that Mangal used to own a relatively small fleet of trucks before Yar’adua came to power. But they estimate that Mangal now owns a large fleet of more than 1,600 long haul trucks with which he picks up and delivers goods without paying customs.

A customs source at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos and the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) told our reporter that Mangal occasionally uses cargo planes owned by MANGAl Airlines (an airline managed by his younger brother) to deliver goods into Nigeria. “We cannot stop him or even try to collect duties because we know that presidency officials would intervene directly,” he said.

Our sources identified Dikko Abdullahi, recently promoted to assistant controller general of Customs, as the main link in the department to Mangal’s expanding smuggling operations. Dikko Abdullahi has received rapid prominence in the Nigerian customs since Yar’adua came to office; he was promoted from comptroller to assistant comptroller general in a short time. A source in Aso Rock told our correspondent that Dikko, who is married to a "sister" of Hajia Turai Yar’adua, is being groomed to take over as comptroller general of the Nigerian Customs. The source revealed that several competent and senior hands were prematurely retired from the Customs to pave way for Dikko Abdullahi’s ascension to the CG position. Abdullahi, also said to be Yar’adua’s distant cousin, hails from Musawa local government area of Katsina State.

He was recently transferred from Seme border, where he oversaw Alhaji Mangal’s and Hajia Turai Yar’adua’s smuggling activities, and made a member of the 14-member Nigerian customs management team composed of ACGs and DCGs of Customs. He owns one of the biggest houses in the Jabi district of Abuja, where he brokers smuggling deals.

Our sources detailed how Turai Yar’adua’s first big financial windfall came when Customs auctioneers were directed to auction confiscated textiles to the “first lady” and her daughters. The contraband goods, seized during the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo, were auctioned off to the Yar’adua family for what Customs officials described as “a token fee.”

One source in Abuja also revealed that Mrs. Farida Waziri, chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, has been “carried along” by the criminal smuggling network. The network’s involvement of Mrs. Waziri is to ensure that her agency does not scrutinize Mangal’s illicit activities as the EFCC did in the past. To keep Mrs. Waziri happy, the smuggling network has made her a regular beneficiary of auctioned contraband goods. Our informants revealed that the controversial EFCC chairperson, who is embedded with numerous corrupt public officials, has used aliases to disguise her identity in the auctioneering deals.

Farida Waziri's customized auction


Saharareporters has obtained copies of five of such transactions between Mrs. Waziri and the “Joint Disposal Committee Overtime and Abandoned Goods.” The documents show that a variety of contraband goods, including electronics and vehicles, were sold to Mrs. Waziri under the names of “Amina Sambo of 5 Zaria Road, Kaduna”, “Elizabeth Chukwu of Market Close, Aba”, “Mariam Haruna of 3 Kwai Road, Jos”, “Esther John of 10 Emeka Close, Enugu”, and “Tabitha Joshua of 2 Pam Road, Jos”. All the transactions were done on May 4th 2009.