President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the new
Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs
Service, Col. Hamid Ali (retd.) to rid the service of
corrupt officers.
The PUNCH learnt on Sunday that as part of
measures to carry out Buhari’s directive, the CG of
Customs had demanded files of top officers of the
service.
Investigations showed that the President specifically
posted Ali to the NCS because of its poor image on
corruption.
It was gathered that Buhari took his anti-graft war to
the Customs also because of the dwindling revenues
from oil which is the country’s major source of
income.
A top officer of the Presidency, who confided in The
PUNCH, noted that Customs ranked among the most
corrupt government agencies in the country.
A survey by the CLEEN Foundation in collaboration
with the McArthur Foundation had in 2013 ranked
Customs among corrupt Federal Government
agencies.
Other corrupt agencies mentioned in the survey
included the Police, Nigeria Immigration Service and
the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria.
It was also gathered that Buhari reasoned that for the
government to meet its obligations amid short-fall in
its revenues, there should be transparency in
revenue generating agencies.
The Presidency official, who spoke with The PUNCH,
identified the fact that the Federal Government had
not met its revenue target in 2015.
For instance, a look at the 2015 budget shows that
the government is targeting gross federally
collectible revenue of N9.78tn to be shared by the
three tiers of government.
The figure, when spread over a 12-month period
when the amount is to be generated, translates into
monthly revenue of N815bn or N2.44tn per quarter.
But figures obtained from the Federal Ministry of
Finance showed that between January and May this
year, the country was only able to generate the sum
of N1.74tn as gross revenue.
When the actual N1.74tn revenue is compared to the
budgeted target of N4.07tn that should have been
earned within the five-month period, it translates
into a revenue shortfall of 42.5 per cent or N2.3tn.
A breakdown of the actual revenue revealed that the
sum of N416.04bn was generated in January,
N401.46bn in February while the months of March,
April and May had N315.04bn, N282.06bn and
N324.96bn respectively.
It was gathered that a mass purge was imminent in
the Customs as part of efforts to carry out the
President’s directive.
Investigations showed that fear had gripped men and
officers of the service, who had been feeding fat on
government revenues.
The PUNCH reliably gathered on Friday that the new
Comptroller-General had started scrutinising files of
top officers of the service and petitions written
against some employees.
Investigations revealed that any Customs officers
with queries pertaining to proven cases of corruption
in his file would be shown the way out.
It was learnt that Ali, in implementing this mandate,
was determined to shore up revenues accruable to
the Federal Government.
Investigations showed that the new Customs boss
would also work on petitions written by members of
the public against some officers.
Some of the petitions, it was gathered, dealt with
illegal sales of seized goods by officers of the service.
A top officer of the NCS, who confided in The PUNCH,
said that there had been complaints about illegal
sales of contrabands.
He said that money accruable from sales of goods
went to private pockets, adding that they were not
gazetted before being sold.
“There are petitions bordering on corruption. The
new helmsman has asked for files of all officers.
Reorganisation is inevitable in the NIS and those who
are corrupt would be shown the way out,” he stated.
It was also gathered that the new comptroller
general would look into violations of rules and
regulations on clearance of goods as well as false
declarations and misapplication of tariffs.
When contacted, the Senior Special Adviser to the
President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina,
said that crux of Buhari’s anti-corruption war was that
anybody that corruptly enriched himself would be
prosecuted.
When asked to explain Buhari’s directives to Ali on
corruption, he said, “I will answer your question with
a question: should we allow a corrupt officer to
continue staying in the system?
“The crux of President Buhari’s anti-corruption
campaign is that anyone found to have corruptly
enriched himself should be dealt with according to
the rules, and the individual must face prosecution.
The campaign is only meaningful if officials indicted
for corruption are made to face trial.”


www.punchng.com/news/corruption-ali-demands-customs-officers-files/

Cc: Seun, Lalasticlala

FTC-So?lets hope its not only northerners that got their promotion through the right channell.This is pure porgander.

Mhen i swear Belle dey sweeet miii...i no ft shoouut oooh!

I wish Ali was made the EFCC boss instead. corrupt folks would have ran away from this country.

Haha .
I do not know this Ali guy but I wish him best of luck.

Good development..
I wish Sir Ali the strength to carry out the task of ridding Customs of corruption.

Pls sir, kindly look into the new trend of some custom officers conniving with some Clearing agent to illegally process nd release containers to their cronies which does not belong to them..

Plix check their WAEC result too oh!!! To many fake results out there

Ghenghen, a new sheriff is in town! I wouldn't know which could be more engaging for Ali, efcc or customs: a million files not yet attended to in efcc or a million petitions bordering on fraudulent sales of contrabands, goods marked for destruction but found their ways back to d mkt, or nearly all officers and men in d service who found their way in not by merit but through d back door.