SONG OF BENEDICTUS FOR ACG OLOMU, COMPT OSHOBA; AS STAKEHOLDERS CALL FOR NATIONAL HONOURS FOR THEIR HARD WORK AT APAPA COMMAND
As the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of Apapa Area 1 Command, Lagos, Comptroller Emmanuel Oshoba, approaches the twilight of his career, he succeeds in doing something great; convincing watchers of his Command’s operations that he possesses excellent leadership qualities
By… Timothy Paul Okorocha
Nature must have had the likes of Comptroller Emmanuel Oshoba in mind when it propounded the ancient Iranian proverb which states that “A gentle hand may lead even an elephant by a single hair”. The import of the wise saying in Apapa Area 1 Customs Command, Lagos, where Comptroller Oshoba superintends as the Customs Area Controller (CAC), is that when his immediate predecessor, the Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) Dr. Babatunde Olomu was elevated to the enviable rank and was about to leave the Command, he (Olomu) had one concern. It was the quality of his successor.
Comptroller Olomu at the time (now ACG Olomu), had elevated performance at the Command to an all time high that the trading community and other stakeholders wondered if the next CAC after him would be able to sustain the tempo. Gentle, friendly and disciplined, Olomu’s leadership surged the Apapa Area 1 Command’s revenue and left smugglers in disarray. Hence his successor must be a blameless officer with a track record of discipline.
Comptroller Oshoba emergence came with mixed feelings; those who knew him before now expressed confidence. Others who were not close to him expressed reservation. Oshoba took over the mantle of leadership, settled down to work, the rest became the history he is making.
Barely two months after Comptroller Oshoba became the CAC, he splashed surprises on the faces of the doubting Thomases. A day in September 2025 came when the Apapa Area 1 Command recorded its highest single-day revenue collection of N20.1 billion. That was a huge feat that sounded sweet in the ears of the Customs management which the ACG Olomu is part of.
Gentle and workaholic Oshoba would not settle for less. He continued to motivate his subordinate officers with performance awards and good example until Tuesday, August 18, 2026 when the Command under him, again recorded another feat in revenue generation. On the said date, the Command surpassed it’s single-day revenue collection profile of September 2025. This time, the Oshoba-led Command generated a whopping N28.1 billion into the government coffers in just 24 hours.
The single-day revenue collection that is making waves within the sector came barely one month after the Apapa Area 1 Command recorded its highest monthly revenue generation in the month of July 2026. In the said month, the Command generated a total of N323 billion.
Speaking on the N28.1 billion revenue of August 18, 2026, Comptroller Oshoba said the collection represented the Nigeria Customs Service’s (NCS) contribution to the economic wellbeing of the country. He acknowledged the cooperation of some of the critical supporting allies of the Command whom he referred to as the compliant trading community and other stakeholders.
The CAC stressed the importance of compliant transactions which his leadership focuses on as a major contributor to the rising revenue profile. Oshaba added that he understood the impact of strong revenue base on the national economy, which he said gives the government greater capacity to respond effectively to the needs of the citizens.
It was gathered by this medium that Comptroller Oshoba’s focus on facilitation of trade, professionalism, transparency and security of the nation has translated to the successes the Command is achieving under his leadership. On the security aspect, the Command has reduced drastically the activities of smugglers through hundreds of billions of Naira worth of seizures that rattled those economic saboteurs.
For example, in the month of July 2026, the Command devastated smugglers when it arrested consignment of Canadian Loud concealed in two containers with motor spare parts and household items. The illicit substance came in 3,639 parcels that weighed 1,819.5 kg. There were other seizures of illicit items in the same month.
Before then, in June 2026, the Command in a joint operations with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), intercepted, on June 15, 1.8 tonnes of Cannabis Sativa worth N12. 8 billion, aside other illicit items. For the Command under Oshoba, it has remained a harvest of seizures which has decimated smuggling activities.
It’s no wonder that stakeholders are saying that the duo of Olomu and Oshoba will be missed greatly by the Service whenever they complete their service. Many are calling on the Federal Government to confer a commensurate national honours on the ACG Olomu and Comptroller Oshoba as a fair reward for their hard work and quintessential leadership.