The battle for who succeeds retiring Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (CNS) turned messy yesterday as attempts by the incumbent, Alhaji Abdullahi Inde Dikko, to force his likely successors out of service were rebuffed by the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation.

Dikko, whose tenure is expected to end this month, following the traditional four-year tenure of previous comptroller-generals of customs, had in May, through what was said to be an improperly constituted Board of Customs Service, asked an Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs, Dr. David Olusegun Agbaje, to retire from the service without any reason.

The letter (ref NCSB/ABJ/AP&/94/S.4/VOL XXXVI/170), written without the Board’s approval, claimed that Agbaje had attained the statutory retirement period of 35 years with effect from March 31, 2011.

Agbaje petitioned the Co-ordinating Minister for Economy and Minister of Finance, who is also chairman of the Nigerian Customs Service Board, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on July 8, 2013, stating that the ‘retirement’ was unlawful and was the climax of years of persecution by Dikko under various false pretences.

Daily Newswatch sources revealed that in his reply to Okonjo-Iweala’s query on the issue, Dikko initially claimed that Agbaje was unfit medically and had overstayed in the Customs Service, claims the Federal Civil Service Commission, the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation immediately confirmed as completely false.

He also implied in his reply that the minister ought not to have attended to the petition because “the petition and other previous ones forwarded to her office were not routed through the Comptroller-General in contravention of extant Public Service Regulations,” and declared that “any contrary action in favour of Agbaje will warrant recall to service of all previously retired officers.”

Dikko, said to be feared because of the belief that he has the ears of the Presidency, ignored the finance minister’s instructions on the issue and early this week asked Agbaje to proceed on retirement, a move which the Ministry of Finance took calmly, but only requested for evidence and compliance to laid down rules instead of “personal attacks and witch-hunting.”

The head of the Civil Service of the Federation, in a letter on Monday (July 29), stated that Agbaje’s “pensionable service commenced from 14th October 1982 when he was employed as Assistant Lecturer by the Ondo State Polytechnic in 1992 and his retirement from service will, consequently, take effect from 13th October, 2017, when he shall have attained the mandatory 35 years of pensionable service in consonance with Rule 020810(i)(ii) of the Public Service Rules, 2008.”

Sources said further that having met a brickwall, the Comptroller-General of Customs re-invented an earlier claim that Agbaje has a physical challenge. The Board was said to have requested for the Federal Civil Service Commission’s circular (FC 6243/S1/Vol XV III/14) which guides promotion of physically challenged officers yesterday and found that the conditions stated in the rules did not apply to Agbaje at all. The Board decided that Agbaje was fit to continue his duties and that his name be excluded from the retirement list.

“Instead of the Comptroller-General to rest his case, he threw the Board’s resolution aside and leaked the retirement of the Assistant Comptroller-General to a section of the media, all because he suspects that Agbaje is one of the leading candidates to take over from him,” a source in the Comptroller-General’s office told Daily Newswatch last night.

Agbaje, who holds PhD in English Studies, had served in various positions in the Nigerian Customs Service across the country until he was appointed Assistant Comptroller-General in January 2010. The Customs officer, who had won various awards, including The News magazine’s Integrity Award and Comptroller-General’s award for discovering huge underpayments in 1999/2000, claimed in his petition that Dikko’s recent action was the second unjust and unlawful retirement ploy set up against him.

When contacted, Nigerian Customs Service spokesman, Wale Adeniyi, said “there is no crisis in the NCS, but some officers were retired on medical grounds.”

Daily Newswatch also called the Special Assistant to the Minister of Finance for comments.

Dikko was appointed by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on August 26, 2009, in controversial circumstances bothering on certificate forgery. Determining Dikko’s successor has been a battle of sort in the past several months as the Katsina-born Comptroller-General is said to have insisted he would choose his successor.
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Long overdue. He should retire already. Had a lot of controversies but lobbied his way through.
Now he needs to bounce.

So true

Another Aboki Monkey scheming hard to be smart unfortunately caught up in his own web!

@OP
To your selfish interest, attaining 35yrs +months in public service is not REASON enough for retirement. And how do you espect your former English teacher to be the CGC just becouse he holds Ph.D in English Studies? Better allow the spirit of due process to take its cause. Remember that ahead of your English master who is just an ACG, some DCG's are ahead of him by seniority. Lets assume that he did not exhaust his required 35years of service, how do you espect him to jump ahead of DCG's and just become a CGC? Please encourage him to retire as at when due before they even disgrace him. He can still secure the offer of appointment for you if you're lucky.