Stakeholders Reactions Trail Ali’s Frequent Reshuffling of Customs Officers

By ZION Olalekan |

Stakeholders in the maritime sector have expressed divergent views on the frequent posting and redeployment of customs officers by the Comptroller General of Customs, Col Hameed Ali (Rtd) even as some have kicked against the exercise saying the implementation is not in line with Federal character.

Leading the pack of operators who reacted to the postings, Board of Trustees (BOT) chairman of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Alhaji Taiwo Mustapha told our correspondent that redeployment of customs officers should be carried out based on merit and not federal character.

According to him, “postings in the military and paramilitary should be purely on merit and should be devoid of any federal character and religious sentiments. Unfortunately I don’t have the entire list of the posting to juxtapose my conclusion whether it’s in line or otherwise. But from the little I could see around me, I think it’s not fair enough”.

Another operator, former President of Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) Dr Frank Ukor described the customs service as ‘Northern Customs Service (NCS)’!

On his part, Comrade Deola Suleiman said that transferring a customs officer especially, an Area Controller from one command to another is never a new thing in customs but that attention must be paid on the duration of time spent by the officers on a particular command.

He said that in as much as the exercise is good for the service so as to avoid the ‘seat tight’ approach of some officers on a command, the CGC should not over-do it.

“The question is what are the duration of time to spend in a command before Area Controllers should be moved from one place to another?”

A Controller that spent 6 months or less in a command and moved out to another command cannot change or add value to that command within that short period.

“Therefore, CG of Customs should allow the Area Controllers to stay at least for one year before thinking of moving them to another command, unless if there is special case of incompetence in such Area Controller”.