Nigeria Customs Service in corruption mess

The Nigerian Customs Ser­vice (NCS) is still a nest of corruption, nepotism and other sharp practices

- This is despite the much acclaimed cleansing of the agency by the current leadership

- Vices known in the NCS in the past are still prominent in the service

A report by The Authority indicates that vices such as promotion and sack of officers on ethnic basis, re­lease of seized vehicles and other goods to friends and families of top senior offices of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) are still rampant.

Nigeria Customs Service in corruption mess

According to the report, serving and some recently disengaged officers of the NCS, declared that Nigerians were yet to be told of the evils which are perpetrated against personnel from the Southern part of the country.

The report quoted some of them as saying it is only in the NCS that officers who should have been sacked are the ones that prepare the list of per­sonnel to be disengaged because they have godfathers in the service.

One of the recently sacked sen­ior officers said their sack was “ridiculous and driven by victimi­sation because we did nothing to warrant such treatment.”

He alleged that “those who recommended our sack are those who ought to be relieved of their jobs if this is a country where the cry of the marginalised and victimised are investigated and culprits punished.”

He continued: “Some of us who were affected have contacted our lawyers to see the possibility of taking the matter to the Presidency and the National As­sembly and maybe the court if those channels failed to reverse our sudden removal.”

“Some of us are victims of false al­legations; some are seen as threats to their interest. Some are known to have a lot of information about their dubious deals at the top level and they think the best way to deal with us is to take us out but we are determined to pursue the matter to any level so as to get justice.

“Our lawyers are preparing our petition and the public will soon know why we were removed.”

Another unnamed officer said: “The NCS needs to­tal cleansing if the country hopes to have as service that can meet the needs of the country in this mod­ern age.

“I can tell you that corruption walks with four legs in the service and the people at the helm of af­fairs at the ministry of finance and the presidency over the time, ei­ther pretended as if they are not aware or at most carried out tep­id reforms that didn’t achieve an­ything either because they benefited from the rot or are afraid of those who back the CGs at vari­ous times.

“Most of the cars or goods seized from smugglers or abandoned at the ports are never properly accounted for. Some of the past CGs and very top officers had the habit and tendency to give such items to their friends, fami­ly members, politicians, and oth­er categories of people without due process.

“Even when such items are auctioned, they use fronts to cor­ner them and later sold them at open markets and the money giv­en to the officers.”

“Those who have connections at the top level of the service and in government never had their goods seized, no matter how they contra­vened the law. Even when goods of such people are seized, they would be released in a matter of days on the ‘order from above’.”

The most frustrating, accord­ing to him, is the posting and pro­motions in the NCS.

“Only people with high con­nections are posted to lucrative lo­cations where they render accounts regularly or are removed.

“The most affected are officers and men from the Southern part of the country who are marginal­ised because those who had been heading the service are from the North. Promotions also are done by who you attached yourself to and who brought you into the ser­vice in the first place”, he lamented.

Responding, act­ing spokesman of the NCS, As­sistant-Comptroller, Joseph At­tah, described the allegation as no issue.

He said those dismissed went through various disciplinary of­ficial procedures before actions were recommended and carried out.

“The allegation is baseless be­cause the dismissal was carried out after series of official disciplinary procedures. There is no question of a certain section of the country being victimised,” he said.

Last week, the comptroller-general of customs, Colonel Hameed Ali (rtd) approved the redeployment of 46 senior officers of the NCS.

The NCS said the redeployment is in a bid to strengthen operations and reposition the service to meet the challenges of the new year 2017.