Customs declares zero tolerance for incessant attacks and murder of its officers

Tayo Oladipupo |

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has declared zero tolerance for incessant attacks and murder of its officers on legitimate duties vowing that it will arrest perpetrators and hand them over for prosecution.

The Zonal Coordinator for Zone A, Aminu Dahiru made the declaration while addressing officers and men of Oyo, Osun Command as part of his tour of Customs formations in the South West.

Calling on its officers and men to step up their level of intelligence, vigilance as well as deploy arms in securing themselves and promote national security in their service to the country, Dahiru frowned and condemned the killings and deadly injuries inflicted on Customs officers that have left the surviving victims handicapped and in some cases, incapacitated.

He berated officers who allowed themselves to be overrun by lawless people and abandoned their colleagues in distress.

“You must not allow criminals to overrun you, kill your colleagues and even destroy government properties under your watch and control. If lawless persons doing illegal activities can attack you with arms, you that are on government assignment should protect the government job you are doing with judicious deployment of arms where necessary.

“We will not tolerate killings and attacks being unleashed on our men for any reason. We will not allow such illegality to intimidate or harass us into submission to criminals.

“Apply tact, deploy intelligence gathering and know your working environment including necessary rules of engagements to make arrests and seizures without casualties. Apply usage of arms lawfully when required.

“While on operation, ensure none of your officers is left behind or left at risk at the mercy of your attackers. We won’t take excuses for such abandonment, if it happens.

“As security officers, you should avoid being rumour mongers and desist from irresponsible use of social media. Use your discretion to apply self-censorship on how you gather and forward information about the Service and its personnel on social media” he ordered.

The Coordinator urged Customs officers to be prepared for courses that would enhance their capacity to do better on the job and excel in rank. Dahiru also frowned at a situation where officers are suspected to be generating excuses in a bid to avoid training programmes and courses.

Customs Area Controller of the Command, Christopher Odibu disclosed that the Command had so far generated N11, 234,008,177.40 as revenue.

Odibu also said the Command made 49 seizures with total duty paid value of N125,103,791,66k

The seizures are 5176 units of 50kg rice, 349 bales of second hand clothing, 42 used cars, 100 units of vegetable oil and 500 units of smuggled tyres.