The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has denied a report in a section of the media purporting that the federal government was shopping for a replacement for the Comptroller General.
The denial came on the heels of widespread speculations that government had put machinery in motion to find a replacement for the incumbent Comptroller next week.
Speaking in an exclusive chat with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY, National Public Relations Officer of NCS, Deputy Comptroller Wale Adeniyi who described the report as malicious and mischievous said the newspaper (not SHIPS & PORTS DAILY) which speculated two weeks extension for the tenure of the incumbent customs boss may have mixed the facts with a two weeks extension for provisional release of cargoes granted importers and their agents due to the backlog of yet to be processed Risk Assessment Report (RAR) applications.
According to him, the report could not have been true since there was no correlation between a two weeks extension for clearance of yet to be processed RAR application and a supposed two weeks extension for the Comptroller General.
“I only spoke with him (the journalist who wrote the story) on the extension of the provisional release that it has been extended till middle of February. That was exactly what he used that I said about the CG stay in office that they have extended his stay till middle of February,” he said.
He said there is no iota of truth in the speculation and that it is the prerogative of the president to appoint a new CG when he deems it necessary.
“I don’t have any say on tenure or no tenure. People should be fair and they should not ask me questions about tenure of the CG. The Customs does not appoint CG; it is the president that appoints the Comptroller General. So it is not fair to direct questions regarding tenure of the CG to me. I am hearing tenure for the first time. When the CG was appointed it was at the president’s disposal. He decide when to appoint or remove a CG, so it has never been any tenure in history and that was what the minister said when she came here that there is no tenure. So I don’t know what they are talking about tenure and extension,” he said.
He has however demanded for a retraction and proper investigation of the story.
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