Newly appointed Customs Area Controller, Lilypond Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Deputy Comptroller Talatu Isa, has formally resumed office.
Isa’s appointment follows the redeployment of Comptroller Willy Egbudin to Seme border Area Command.
Speaking at a handover ceremony held yesterday at the command, Isa solicited the support and cooperation of officers even as she assured of operating an open door policy.
She admonished the officers to ensure all hands are on deck to facilitate trade, realize and surpass the command’s revenue target.
“What I need is everybody’s hand to be on deck. Your watch word should be integrity, honesty and the fear of God,” she told the Command’s officers.
Earlier in his address, Egbudin expressed appreciation for the cooperation and support he enjoyed from the officers and asked them to extend same to the new controller.
“Without your cooperation, she will succeed because without your cooperation I couldn’t have succeeded. It is because you all cooperated with me that is why I can look back and say yes I have succeeded,” he said.
He disclosed that the Command due to low level of activities in the past, got its monthly revenue target reviewed fromN5billion reviewed to N1.5billion monthly. He said activities have, however, picked up in recent times.
He said due to increase in the number of containers transferred to the terminal, the command has generated over N1.6 billion this month, thus surpassing its monthly target even before the end of the month.
“When I came about a year ago, everywhere was looking so deserted. Activities were very low. Sometimes My management staff and I will go from one shipping company to another trying to convince them to use this terminal. We had a lot of challenges. At a time, we were generating below N200 million (monthly) and we were even threatened that the Command would be merged with Apapa but we did not give up neither did we just sit idle. Today, the month has not ended but we have so far generated N1.6 billion,” he said.
Egbudin also solicited prayers of the officers to enable him succeed at his new Command declaring his new posting as going to “a war zone.”
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