Why We Sacked 35 Senior Customs Officers- CG

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The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali has said that his decision to sack a total of 35 senior officers of the service comprising Deputy Comptrollers General, Assistant Comptrollers General and some Comptrollers is in line with the mandate given to him by President Muhammandu Buhari.

The service had last Thursday last week , compulsorily retired all the five Deputy Comptrollers-General of the service comprising John Atte, Ibrahim Mera, Musa Tahir, Austin Nwosu and Akinade Adewuyi.

The CG, who also announced the sack of three Assistant Comptrollers General at the weekend, consisting of Madu Mohammed, who was Secretary to the Nigeria Customs Board, Victor Gbemudu, Zonal Coordinator Zone ‘A’ and Bello Liman, Assistant Comptroller-General in charge of Headquarters, said the exercise was in line with the on-going re-organisation in the Service.

According to him, the retirement of the 35 officers, which takes immediate effect as part of the re-organisation of the Service, is one of his core mandates handed down by the president.

Also affected in the shake are officers of the rank of Comptrollers serving in Customs Headquarters, Zonal Offices and various Area Commands.

Ali also stated that the retirements were part of measures to kick-start the repositioning of the Service for improved performance.

The President had in September appointed Col. Hameed Ali, a military officer, who retired over 20 years ago as the CG of the service following the voluntary retirement Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, who served for five years

The new CG had on resumption of duty, indicated that part of his mandate as the new helms man for the service by President Buhari would consist of Reform, Reform, Restructure and Revenue RRR,.

The CG, who paid his maiden working visit to the service’s commands and other seaport facilities in Lagos, had while addressing news men after the five day visit ruled out the possibility of sacking officers and men of the service.

He had also said that only a very few officers and men of the service are corrupt, contrary to widely held belief even around the government circles.

It was also gathered that the CG may also have set the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC against the six sacked top offi cers, who he had investigated on resumption of office with the support of the anti-graft agency and the Directorate of State Security Service DSS.

Maritime stakeholders, who reacted to the mass retirement, noted that those of the five DCGs were expected but said that those of Comptrollers and ACGs were not.

They argued that the compulsory retirement of some ACGs and Comptrollers may not be unconnected with the outcome of the corruption and security checks conducted by the CG in conjunction with the DSS and EFCC.

President Buhari had come under heavy criticisms by stakeholders following the appointment of the new CG, who they argued knew next to nothing about customs administration.

They argued that the appointment of a retired military officer, which was second of its type, as late General Sani Abacha appointed Ango Abdullahi, to head a highly Information Communication Technology ICT-driven will take the service back by over 10 years.

These stakeholders believe that the best the president should have done is to fish out a young officer, who is untainted and not corrupt to purge the system so as to maintain professionalism and efficiency in the service.

“Bringing a complete novice in customs operations at this stage in the history and reform of Customs administration was the worst thing to happen to the service, especially under a democratic dispensation”, the stakeholders further argued.

Source: National Mirror