The Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ibrahim Ali has approved the redeployment of 70 Comptrollers of Customs.
Customs Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah, said in a statement on Friday in Abuja that the redeployment was part of effort by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to meet the challenges of fighting smuggling, revenue collection and trade facilitation,
Some of the affected Comptrollers are Abubakar Bashir who moves from Port-Harcourt II (Onne) to Apapa; Musa Jibrin from Apapa to Human Resources Development department Abuja; Sa’idu Galadima from Information Communication Technology (ICT) to Port-Harcourt Area II (Onne) while Mohammed Aliyu of Seme Command swapped positions with Mohammed Garba of Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’, Lagos.
Ali was quoted as saying that the Federal Government policies on agriculture, economy and security can only be successful with a strong, determined and patriotic Customs.
He charged the affected officers to bring their experiences to bear in their new postings by fighting smuggling and collecting adequate revenue.
“In the face of challenging security situation and increasing inclination to non-oil revenue drive, the Service must step up to be counted as a necessary safety valve for national growth,” he reportedly said.
The redeployments were with immediate effect.
Meanwhile the Ogun Area Command of Nigeria Customs Service said it made about 298 seizures with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of over N1.5 billion from January to July, 2018.
Outgoing Controller of the command, Michael Agbara, who disclosed this to newsmen when the Coordinator in charge of Zone ‘A’ Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, Aminu Dahiru visited the command at Idiroko said his men seized 20,574 bags of smuggled foreign rice during the period under review.
Agbara said the command seized 618 cartons of frozen poultry products, 1,643 of 25 litres each of vegetable oil, 254 units of vehicles, 30 motorcycles, 49 sacks and 32 bales of second hand clothing, 164 compressed book packs, 8 sacks and 85 coconut packs of Cannabis Sativa (Indian Hemp) as well as 624 kegs of premium motor spirit, otherwise known as petrol.
He said, “On rice smuggling in the year 2017, a total of 21, 789 bags of rice were seized from January to December. But with the command’s reinvigorated efforts, a seizure of 20,574 bags of rice have been recorded within the period of January to July, 2018.
“The above success story is an indication of full commitment of the command towards achieving the laudable policy of the present government in enhancing local rice production. Suppression of smuggling is a core mandate of the Nigeria Customs Service and it is fought with daunting challenges in the Ogun Command.”
Agbara stated that some of the seized perishable items would be donated to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno State by the Nigerian Army Corps of Supply and Transport in line with the directive from the Customs headquarters.
