Old video used to claim Nigerian customs officials intercepted smuggled arms in April 2025

Published on May 7, 2025 at 10:30
3 min read
By Oluseyi AWOJULUGBE, AFP Nigeria

Nigeria has contended with a high level of insecurity, including communal clashes and banditry, which have been linked to the proliferation of arms smuggled into the country. A video circulating on social media purportedly shows ammunition from 100 containers intercepted by the Nigeria Customs Service at Onne Port in April 2025. But the claim is misleading; the video was taken in June 2024 when authorities seized a single container filled with rifles and ammunition.

“The customs and other security agencies at Onne port seized 100 containers of imported sophisticated ammunitions that were headed to Abia state, which is about 80km from the seaport (sic),” reads an X post published on April 14, 2025.

The post has been reposted more than 800 times.

In the video, different types of firearms can be seen displayed on the ground.

Voices can be heard in the background mentioning numbers and doing some sort of calculation, perhaps in an attempt to determine the number of firearms.

“Oh boy, no be size. Onne don shake, Onne is shaking (sic),” a voice says towards the end of the 51-second clip.

Onne Port is located in Nigeria’s Rivers state.

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on April 28, 2025

The video was published elsewhere on Facebook, Instagram and X in a similar context.

The Nigeria Customs Service is a border security agency that facilitates international trade, enforces anti-smuggling laws, and imposes duties and tariffs.

According to the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, the circulation of small arms has contributed to the increased rate of kidnappings and secessionist agitations in Nigeria (archived here).

While the video shows arms confiscated by Nigeria’s customs officers, the post misleadingly frames the event as recent and exaggerates the size of the seizure.

2024 arms seizure

AFP Factcheck conducted a reverse image search on keyframes from the video and the results established that it was taken last year.

The clip was published on the Facebook account belonging to the Port Harcourt office of local broadcaster Classic FM on June 25, 2024 (archived here).

“Large cache of ammunitions allegedly seized in a bonded terminal in Onne Port, Rivers State,” the caption reads.

The same firearms and ammunition appear in both videos.

Screenshots comparing the misleading post (left) and the June 2024 video

The clip was also published by other local media outlets at the time (archived here).

Further searches led to a different video posted on the official Facebook account of the Nigeria Customs Service on July 6, 2024, revealing the contents of the confiscated container (archived here).

In the video, Adewale Adeniyi, the customs comptroller general, said a container was flagged at Onne Port and examined on June 21, 2024.

“The suspicious container was subjected to a thorough physical examination. The result revealed the following alarming contents: 844 units of assorted rifles, 112,500 units of live ammunition,” Adeniyi said.

He also noted that the arms were concealed using various items, including doors, furniture, leather bags and plumbing equipment.

Other Nigerian news outlets also reported that the arms were found in one container, and not 100 as alleged in the recent online posts (archived here).

In February 2025, customs officials handed over 1,599 assorted firearms and 2,298 live cartridges that were smuggled into Nigeria to the office of the National Security Adviser (archived here).

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