By Esogwa Godwin
A major shakeup has taking place in the Nigeria Customs Service with over 60 Area Comptrollers of the Nigeria customs being reassigned or posted out of their former positions. Almost all the major Customs Command are affected by this major shakeup. For example, Apapa Customs Command, Nigeria Premier Port is now being headed by Compt. Willy Egbudin; while Compt. Bashir Yusuf is in charge of Tin-Can Island Port. Other commands affected are Seme Command where Compt. Victor Dimka is fully in charge; at PTML Command, Compt. Olubiyi R.O is in charge; Federal Operation Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja is headed by Compt. Kankara Bello; while Compt. Haruna Muhammed is in charge of FOU Zone E, Owerri; Compt. Allanah F.A was posted to Muritala Muhammed Airport Command.
It is expected that, this reorganisation of the Area Command, Col. Ali Hameed, the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC) is part of the CGC’s attempt to restructure and reform the Nigeria Custom Service which he inherited from Alhaji Inde Dikko.
It would be recalled that since the appointment of Ali as the CGC, he has not failed to make it clear that his mandate is to restructure and reform the custom service and also fight corruption in the service.
There is no doubt that information coming out of the Nigerian Customs has shown that Ali has maintained some form of sanity in the command as officers now carry out their duties with extreme carefulness; misconduct or indiscipline among officers and men of the service has reduced drastically.
Illegal promotion and posting has stopped, while a committee has been put in place to reconsider past promotions and illegal promotions that were taking place in the service. He promised to demote any officer that was illegally promoted, while those that were discriminated against will receive justice. Meanwhile, Ali has blamed the CBN over the inability of the Nigerian Customs to meet its target in 2015 after the sum of N903 Billion was generated as against N954 billion assigned to the command.
He urge the government to reconsider the 41 ban forex restrictions which are affecting Nigerians import trade.
He said Nigeria lost over N240 Bn in 2015 a situation he blamed on the CBN forex restriction policy that had a negative impact on Nigeria foreign trade.