The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service; Alhaji Dikko Inde Abdullahi has charged officers and men of the service at the various commands to ensure that they generate enough revenue into government coffers so as to impress the government and ensure smooth running of the administration of the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.
Dikko gave the charge yesterday when he visited Lagos to inspect the two newly-acquired patrol boats by the customs namely; Group of Nine, and Customs Pride.
The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service; Alhaji Dikko Inde Abdullahi has charged officers and men of the service at the various commands to ensure that they generate enough revenue into government coffers so as to impress the government and ensure smooth running of the administration of the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari.
Dikko gave the charge yesterday when he visited Lagos to inspect the two newly-acquired patrol boats by the customs namely; Group of Nine, and Customs Pride.
Addressing journalists after inspecting the boats, Dikko who had earlier paid a visit to all the various commands in Lagos, urged the officers to display the same exemplary attitude they used in working for the President Goodluck Jonathan's administration to the in-coming administration.
Dikko lamented that the 2015 general elections has significantly affected the revenue collection of the Customs Service. Even though he did not give actual figures, he urged the officers to ensure that they tighten the noose and make sure they meet the 2015 target.
"We have just concluded the general elections and the customs were part of the security agencies that performed that election, the reason why they were selected to be part of that election is based on trust, it is now that they have come of age"
"The second side of it is that they have to use that exemplary behaviour and performance and show it on revenue so that when the new government will come, they will see that at least they are doing their best and they can key in with the new government as they were in the last government" Dikko stated.
He said that the service had at the beginning envisaged a drop in its revenue due to the elections and that it had started blocking the revenue leakages so that it could meet the figures for the year.
"So, as you can see me, apart from coming to commission these vessels, I have gone through my commands and informed them that we have to make up for the six weeks we had the shortfall, we have to gear up and make sure that we meet the expectation of our target, and I am sure there is no shaking" he assured.
The customs boss explained that one of the newly-acquired speed boats was named "Group of Nine" in order to immortalize the memory of nine customs officer who lost their lives in the attempt to intercept smugglers.
Dikko said that this is the way to say thank you for the officers who died in the line of duty and for their families to immortalize their names.
He assured that the boats will improve anti smuggling activities of the customs.
Speaking further, he said, "the group of nine was when I was the Controller in charge of investigations, it was a bad memory because nine of my officers were killed on the high seas by smugglers, they were carrying petrol, my officers tried to intercept in-between and they turned their pump against the customs while they jumped inside the water"
"The two boats went up in flames, we tried as much as possible to rescue them but unfortunately we couldn't".
According to him, so much money was given to acquire the vessels in order to meet certain specifications. He assured that more vessels might be added to the fleet by the time government sees the performance of the two boats.
Captain of one of the boats; Customs Pride, Mr. Babatunde Lawal pointed out the featured of the patrol boats, saying that it has navigational aids, AIS, it has bullet-proof windows, among others.
"We can read the condition of the wind, we can equally read information about the vessels around us, we have the electronic chat there, and with the information gadgets on board, we can speak with somebody in London, we have similar provision at all our formation so we can as well relate with all of them in terms of emergency and arrests"
"We may experience resistance from whoever we want to arrest, so there is a device to fix a high calibre gun in the front and back"
"The ship can accommodate 20 people on the average including VIP Cabin and Captain Cabin"
"We can also get any distress call from anywhere around the world online", Lawal said
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