Customs scores officers high on elections

The Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Dikko Abdullahi, has scored the performance of officers who participated in the just concluded general elections high.

Abdullahi, who gave the commendation during his visit to major commands in Lagos on Thursday, said throughout the elections, there was no record of indiscriminate usage of arms and ammunition by Customs officers.

“Our performance during the elections I think is 75 percent.  We did not hear of any usage of arms and ammunition in the course of the election in any of the polling booth. I am not giving the total credit to Customs but all the security agencies that have performed wonderfully well.

“Jointly we have to secure the borders because we know the consequences of what may happen if we don’t secure the borders considering the fact that we have some challenges in the north east. We lose our sleep to make sure that we safeguard the territorial integrity of Nigeria,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Customs boss said that the Service had released former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s autobiography titled, My Watch.

Abdullahi said that the container was released following the vacation of an Federal High Court, Abuja order restraining the former President from publishing, printing or offering for sale, his autobiography titled,My Watch on Tuesday.

“Customs got the initial order of the court to stop the container and now that the court asked us to release the container, so be it,” he said.

Justice Valentine Ashi had ordered the release of the books, which had been in the custody of customs.

Ashi, in a ruling, upheld the argument by Obasanjo’s counsel, Kanu Agabi (SAN), that the court was misled into granting the orders on December 5 and Decemeber10, 2014.

The court had granted the orders on December 5, 2014, restraining Obasanjo from publishing his book in the country pending the determination of the suit filed against him by a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Buruji Kashamu.

Despite the December 5 order, Obasanjo proceeded to launch the book on December 9 in Lagos, a development that prompted the court to make the orders of December 10.

Ashi also restrained the comptroller-general from charging demurrage on copies of the book already confiscated.

 

 



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