The New Zonal Coordinator, Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Assistant Comptroller-General Aminu Dahiru, has urged officers in Lagos to be more transparent and support the management to achieve its mandate.
Dahiru made the plea on Wednesday when he visited the Tin-Can Island Command, Ports and Terminal Multi-Services Ltd (PTML) Command, Western Marine Command and Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Command in Lagos.
He frowned against situations where some Customs officers were in the past being used by some agents to commit fraudulent acts.
Dahiru told officers at the various commands he visited to be diligent and transparent, adding that they had the management backing if only they engage in sincere legitimate duties.
“The service deserves the best from you because you are also working to protect Nigerians while doing your legitimate duties.
“The present management of the NCS have been supportive and encouraging hard-working officers by extending promotions and also motivating dedicated officers by giving awards as motivation.
“The senior officers should make themselves relevant with the ICT so that the junior officers would not take away their duties and render them irrelevant in Customs operations.
“I am commending the Customs Area Comptroller of Tin-Can Island Command, Comptroller Yusuf Bashar and his officers for the tremendous success of constant interception of rifles and fake pharmaceuticals products.
“Presently there are many cases of smuggling of vehicles that came into the country illegally without paying duties,’’ Dahiru said.
He urged officers to take full advantage of the leadership of Comptroller Bashar to acquire more knowledge by meeting him from time to time to take them through any Customs area they did not get well.
Dahiru said that the era of bribing senior officers in order to be promoted had gone.
He advised Customs officers to make use of the opportunity to improve their duties, adding that Customs job was “knowledge-based’’.
Dahiru urged officers to improve on their education, which he said would have positive effects on their jobs.
The zonal coordinator commended the stakeholders at various commands and urged them to intensify their efforts to enable him have the best tenure in terms of revenue generation as well as improving on the level of compliance.
He urged officers at the marine area to work toward engaging in spectacular seizures, adding that the management had promised to motivate and offer them promotion for hard work.
Bashar also urged the officers not to relent and to continue to work hard to justify their promise to the nation.
The controller also commended the stakeholders for their support and urged them to be more transparent, particularly during the festive period.
He called for their support to enable the zonal coordinator have a smooth tenure.
The controller of Port and Terminal Multi-Service Ltd, PTML Command, Mrs Modupe Aremu said that the command generated N10.6 billion revenue in October, adding that the revenue was the highest recorded in the history of the command.
The Controller, Western Marine Command, Comptroller Mustapha Sarki-Kebbi, told the zonal coordinator to assist more officers to be trained on marine patrol and also requested for patrol boats to enable officers be on top of their duty.
At the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Command, Comptroller Lami Wushishi, urged officers to listen to the advice the zonal coordinator had given them and urged them to do their best.
Wushishi said that zonal coordinator had spoken the mind of the management, adding that there was no doubt that officers of the command would continue to have positive attitude to work.
She said that cargo had not been increasing due to the constant gridlock on the road leading to the terminal.
“Many stakeholders had complained to me about the problem encountered in transfering their containers as a result of traffic.
“We had also seized a lot of military camouflage, fake drugs and used bags, which we have handed over to the appropriate authorities.
“We surpassed our target by 30 per cent. The command’s revenue target for the year is N7.654 billion while the monthly target is N639.5 million, excluding VAT.
“The command surpassed its target as it had generated N9.938 billion between January and October 2017,’’ Wushishi said.
She promised to put more efforts in continuing to improve the revenue of the command.
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