suspected hacker arrested by custom officers

OFFICERS of Tin-Can Island port Command of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, yesterday arrested a suspected hacker,
Mr Adedoyin Shofola, who allegedly broke into the customs work station and  downloaded vital information from the customs computer.

The suspect, who was arrested by the enforcement team of Tincan command, was captured with an electronic device filled with valuable data retrieved from the customs workstation.

The Customs Area Controller, CAC, of the Command, Comptroller Eporwei Edike, who paraded the suspect before newsmen, said the intention of the suspect was to use the information to release at a cheaper rate containers in the ports awaiting customs’ clearance.

The Comptroller was  amazed that the likelihood of Wikileaks, which broke into the US systems, releasing vital information to the world, had gradually spread to Nigeria.

He said:  “The suspect deliberately made his way into the terminal before 7.00am and manipulated the computer to retrieve officers’ pass words from our ASYCUDA system in order to release containers without the knowledge of the customs.

“This is a serious case because we had cases in the past when containers in the ports were released with low import duties without the consent of customs, but at the end, innocent officers were punished for the crime they did not commit”.

Edike added, “In furtherance of our efforts at ensuring sanity in our operations within the command, we have devised strategies to enhance inter-agency cooperation with stakeholders, which include  parley with them and other security departments operating within the ports.

“We are restructuring the command’s mode of operations to create an enabling environment by removing bottlenecks in the clearance procedure aimed at achieving safe and prompt cargo delivery to enhance revenue generation for government.”