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The Oyo/Osun Area Controller of Customs, Uche Ngozi has called on the Alaafin of Oyo , Oba Lamidi Adeyemi 111 to assist the Area Command in its fight against smuggling, and achieve the desired goal of contributing to the economic development of the country.
In the recent past, the Command had faced enormous challenge of stemming the activities of smugglers , especially in the Oke-Ogun axis of Oyo state .
She , therefore solicited the support and cooperation of the monarch in checkmating acts of smuggling and other criminal tendencies in the area community, through intensive enlightenment of the people.
Speaking during a courtesy visit to the first class traditional ruler at the Alaafin Palace, Oyo on Thursday , the Customs Area Controller appealed for royal support in the fight against the activities of smugglers, and other criminal tendencies in the area .
Accompanied by the Officer in Charge of Operations, Mr. Moses Adewole and other top officers of the Command, the Controller who described the Alaafin as a monarch with high cerebral and whose conducts remain a source of inspiration to right thinking individuals, told the royal father that the objective of the Customs Service is to build the nation and its people by checking the activities of economic saboteurs .
According to her, the Customs cannot succeed in this task , without the support of the traditional rulers , who are next to the people at the grassroot.
In his welcome address , Oba Adeyemi stated that a society without a sound social and moral base will be her worst enemy in terms of the human misery, fear, insecurity and barbarism that would be self-inflicted in the process of a misguided scientific advancement.
The monarch also stressed the need for Nigerians to relate her development to value system, adding that to do contrary is to entrust the safety of the insane man into his own hand which is a recipe for self-destruction.
“The purpose of this is that morality is germane to social growth and development. Therefore, to extricate morality from the Nigerian society is to destroy the very essence of the society, thereby inviting anarchy and disorderliness. Morality is a necessary tool for the survival of human society, as it is vital to the survival of any society because it is the basis of all social structures and institutions”, Oba Adeyemi said.
The royal father further noted that the problems facing the country are anchored on non-compliance with or total neglect of moral principles and these have led to the doldrums being experienced in private and public lives.
According to him, the insecurity and violence that usually characterize multi-ethnic and religious societies are usually ascribed to their plural nature and the quest by the different ethnic and religious groups to “corner” there sources of the society and to control the political space to the detriment of others.
“However, the old Oyo Empire experience, which lasted over 600 years, is a pointer to the fact that prospects abound for peaceful co-existence and by extension, security in plural societies if nation building is enhanced and if ethnicity and religions play only nominal roles.“All over the world, there are confusion, crises and conflicts. Terrorism, kidnappings, abductions, armed robberies, armed uprisings,ethno-religious and political upheavals have become the order of the international system.“Genocide has become a common denomination with the systematic extermination of groups based on ethnic and religious identities. Hardly does a day go by without news of ethnic and religious conflicts from different parts of the world, ” the traditional ruler said.
Oba Adeyemi , therefore, enjoined security agencies, including para – military establishments like the Nigeria Customs Service, to employ native intelligence services in a bid to effectively tackle critical security challenges confronting the country, especially border security.
He noted that security of any country is critical for development, economic prosperity and democratic principles to thrive, adding that the critical issue is the way a country deploys its strategic security responses to protect the citizens.
”Nigeria is not the only country facing security challenges today. The fundamental thing is how you deal with these challenges. We can sustain national security operations or options by using native intelligence gathering as a response to national security threat”, the royal father stated.
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