The Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali (rtd) yesterday decorated five Deputy Comptrollers General (DCGs) of Customs and eight Assistant Comptrollers General (ACGs).
The eight ACGs were in acting capacities.
Speaking at the brief decoration ceremony held in Abuja, Ali congratulated the elevated officers and charged them to see the new ranks as a call to higher services.
He said all hands must be on deck to cripple smugglers and raise needed revenue for the nation.
Ali said that promotion in the NCS was based on experience and hard work, adding that for an officer to get to the position of ACG or DCG, the individual would have gone through thick and thin.“This is the first time in the NCS we are abiding by the Beijing conference resolution.“Today out of the 18 Customs management members, we have six women and out of the six DCGs we have two women.“To whom much is given much is expected; the weight is not in the rank, but the responsibility. These ranks will propel you to do more in the service.“I must confess that this is the first time that I will take responsibility for full selection of members of the management.“And what that means therefore is that the failure of the management is the failure of Ali, because I selected this team. I hope and pray that you will not let me down.“We as a team will continue to propel, move the service forward and we will continue to serve this country in the best interest of the nation.“The NCS is the only service I know that touches virtually the lives of everybody in the area of trade facilitation, revenue generation and security and wellbeing of Nigerians.“We thank this great nation for giving us the opportunity and permission to serve,” Ali said.
The CG recalled that at the last World Customs Organisation (WCO) council meeting, one of the things that were promoted was equal gender representation in the service.He said that WCO advocated for equality between women and men in the service.“I will be glad to tell the Secretary General of WCO that NCS was the first to have met the criteria,’’ Ali said.
“Let me use this forum to enjoin all of you to join hands with the leadership and management to ensure that in the next three months we have reduced smuggling to its barest minimum.“The greatest challenge that we have in the NCS is smuggling and with the new management we will be able to move forward and reduce smuggling most importantly rice.“It our job to protect our agricultural produce and it is our job to make sure our farmers benefit from government policy.“And we can do this by making sure that we stop the influx of foreign rice into the country,’’ he said.
The five DCGs are; Aminu Dangaladima, Augustine Chidi, Sule Robert Alu, Patience Iferi (Ph.D) and Ronke Olubiyi.
The affected ACGs are; Talatu Mairo Isa, Benjamin Abeh, Ladan Hamza, Kaycee Ekekezie, Aminu Dahiru, Francies Enwereuzor, Fatade Olakunle Aderinle and Mahmud Haruna
Responding on behalf of the newly decorated, DCG Ronke Olubiyi thanked President Muhammadu Buhari, and the CG of Customs for the confidence reposed in them, promising not to let the nation down.
Meanwhile, the CGC has approved the redeployment of ACG Aminu Dahiru from Zone ‘B’, Kaduna to Zone ‘A’, Lagos as Zonal Coordinator while the Customs Area Controller of Oyo/Osun Command, Comptroller Udo-Aka Emmanuel has been appointed as Ag. ACG to coordinate Zone B, Kaduna.
Comptroller David Chikan who is coming from the Defence College is to head Oyo/Osun Command while Comptroller Elton Edorhe moves from Human Resource Development to Plateau/Benue/Nasarawa Command.
