Customs, Defence Bureau Test Indigenous Airboat For Anti-Smuggling Patrols
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Bureau (DRDB), has conducted a joint test of a locally built airboat designed to improve surveillance and anti-smuggling patrols across shallow waterways at Jabi Lake, Abuja.
The trial, held under the supervision of officials from both agencies, marked a step toward deploying indigenous technology in addressing maritime insecurity.
The airboat is specifically designed to navigate terrain where conventional patrol vessels struggle, offering a tactical advantage in intercepting smugglers operating along difficult-to-access routes.
Comptroller Haniel Haddison, who heads Special Duties at NCS Headquarters, said the initiative underscored the agency’s growing reliance on local innovations to enhance border security.
“This is a welcome idea for the Nigeria Customs Service and we commend the efforts of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, to ensure that we add value in our equipment.
“This is a very good collaboration and that is what the Comptroller-General of Customs stands for – Synergy and Collaboration with sister agencies, particularly as it relates to capacity building.
“This will add value to the competency and capability of the Nigeria Customs Service,” Haddison stated.
Haddison noted that officials at the event described the test as a demonstration of how collaboration between defence research institutions and frontline security agencies could provide solutions tailored to Nigeria’s security environment.
Director of Maritime Research and Development at DRDB, Rear Admiral Suleiman El-Ladan, stressed that inter-agency partnerships remained vital to tackling the complexity of modern maritime threats.
He explained that technology-driven cooperation not only enhanced operational capacity but also ensured sustainable responses to smuggling and other illicit maritime activities.
The airboat project reflects growing efforts by Nigerian agencies to explore homegrown innovations in security operations, reducing dependence on foreign-built patrol crafts while addressing challenges unique to the country’s waterways.
Customs, Defence Bureau Test Indigenous Airboat For Anti-Smuggling Patrols is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
