OPERATION ALI: As all customs deputy CGs quit, 30 more senior officers to go in mass purge
All the deputy comptroller-generals of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have resigned as Hameed Ali, the comptroller-general, begins a clear-out at the service in a major restructuring.
A source told TheCable that three assistant comptroller-generals and 27 senior officers will soon be retired.
The officers who quit on Thursday are: Chukwuma Nwosu, John Atte, Tahir Musa, Adewuyi Akinade and Mera IM.
In the 100-year history of the agency, this is the first time that all senior officers on a particular rank will leave at the same time.
TheCable understands that the deputy comptrollers, who were given the option of voluntarily leaving the service, leaked a joint retirement letter that they wrote to the media on Thursday, in what was seen as a peremptory PR stunt.
This development is coming two months after Abdullahi Diko stepped down as the comptroller-general after his tenure was not extended by President Muhammadu Buhari.
After Diko’s exit, Buhari appointed Ali, a retired military officer known to have a strong reputation, to head the service.
On his part, Ali promised to transform customs, which has been enmeshed in different allegations of corruption over the years.
“The days of corruption are gone. Anybody caught shall not be left to go scot-free. I am a stickler for the enforcement of the law. There is need for law and order, and it is important to follow the rules as they are so that we all do not have problems,” he had said during his maiden working visit to Lagos.
Diko had advised those behind him not to wait until they were asked to leave.
“I’m sending out this signal to all those who have stayed put. Don’t stay until they ask you to go. When you feel you have done so much and you believe in the system you have built, then why do you stay? Why not leave and watch and advise?” he had said.
Yes, I know that most of these guys are very corrupt and the customs need to be rid of corruption. However, I’m concerned that this Buhari man thinks that the Customs will be cleaned up by sacking people and replacing them with another set who will probably turn out to be worse.
What the customs need is transparency, transparency and transparency!!!. This can be easily achieved today by the use of technology.
The major problem today is that regulations for duty payments are very ambiguous and leave room for different interpretations by customs officers. This gives them a lot of room to blackmail importers into paying them bribes. It also leave unscrupulous importers a wide berth to cheat the government.
You have situation where same products have 2 different duty rates depending on if it is interpreted as fully built or knocked down part. Of course customs officers interpret it based on what who and what pays them.
Each importer should be able to access a custom website to know what is the assessment of duty due his product and confirm if his/her agent has paid it properly.
Sacking customs officers alone will not solve this problem.