By Chimezie Godfrey
The Acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, says his administration will not rest on its oars until the menace of smuggling is significantly suppressed in Nigeria.
The CGC spoke on Thursday in Kaduna when he visited the Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘B’ as part of his official working tours to the Customs Formations in the country.
While addressing the officers at the FOU Zone ‘B’ Auditorium, the Ag. CGC charged them to exacerbate the business of smugglers through intensifying border patrol and confiscation of unlawful items that will lead to the success of generating revenue for the Nigerian government.
“I urge you to double your efforts in frustrating the businesses of unpatriotic citizens who venture into smuggling activities within the edges of Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘B’.” He said.
The Ag. CGC also commended the role of the officers and men of the Service at the Zone in maintaining their stand, assuring that “the Service will not turn blind eyes on any officer who exhibits courage in the cause of his work.”
“While I commend the officers who engineer good seizures in this Zone, I also wish to charge you all to be more steadfast in discharging your duties with the provisions of the law to suppress the smuggling of unlawful substances.”
Speaking, the Comptroller Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘B’, Comptroller Musa Ibrahim Jalo, briefed the Ag. CGC on the level of his Unit’s successes in generating revenue.
He told the CGC that the milestones attained by the Unit were possible due to his new tactics of engaging community members and stakeholders in the Unit, “and that has led us to seize foreign rice, petroleum products, marijuana amongst other items – through intelligence gathering.”
According to him, the Customs-Community relationship in the Unit is already paying good results, as they have recently recovered N2,500,636,150 in revenue, which he said was achieved due to the commitment of the officers at the Unit.
On a separate occasion, the Ag. Comptroller-General of Customs had also visited Kaduna Area Command, where he addressed the cross-section of officers and men.
The CGC’s speech revolved around tasking the officers to pay attention to serving Nigeria as excellent Customs Officers and also to be determined to pass their promotion examinations, as it will be based on performance – not favouritism.
He said that the Service has renewed its strategy for assessing officers who performed excellently in service, emphasizing that “the era of making contact with officers who are ahead of you by rank to assist you pass your examinations has passed.”
