Customs: Ali On His Last Lap

By Stephen Ubanna
Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel and Comptroller General, Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, appear to be on last lap of his Presidential mandate to reform, restructure and improve, the revenue generation of the Service.
Between Monday November 5 and Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Ali, was said to have gathered all the officers from the rank of Assistant Comptrollers to Comptrollers and some selected Chief Superintendent of Customs , at the Customs Training College to brainstorm on the new Customs.

The Magazine learnt that the Customs image makers at the Customs Zonal and Area Commands led by Joseph Attah, A deputy Comptroller and the Customs National Public Relations officer were at the workshop. The Magazine gathered that the officers have been gathered to learn new things about Customs operations and what is expected of them in the new Customs.
The Comptroller General may have decided to carry along the officers along in other to produce a credible report that would be acceptable to the government. There had been several attempts in the past by the government to reform the Customs but nothing had come out of it. Ali may have learnt from the mistakes of the past that he had decided to carry the officers to make their inputs in the new Customs.

Given the importance attached to the Seminar by the Customs boss, the officers were said to have paid adequate attention to the resource persons as there was no time for truancy. Informed sources told the Magazine that the only time the officers were allowed to go out from the hall to exchange pleasantries with their course mates in other stations , who they had never have seen for years was during the tea or lunch break. Most of the Comptrollers from the south west who were said to have been excused by the resource person to attend their Zonal meeting at Yaba may have gone back to their respective offices because of time constraint and thus were not part of the closing ceremony on Tuesday, November6, 2018.

Officers who spoke to the Magazine commended Ali, the Customs Comptroller General , for organising the workshop, which have given them opportunity to air their views on how to reposition the Service to live up to its core mandate of anti-smuggling operations to intercept Contraband such as illegal drugs and weapons, enforce import and export prohibitions and protect businesses against illegal trade malpractices. This is in addition to collecting accurate import and export data for economic, statistical usage and planning in the country.

The Ali organised Customs workshop at the Ikeja Customs Training College, from all indications, may turn out to be the turning point in Customs operations. He has made made it clear to those that care to listen that the outcome of the workshop , would be implemented to the later by the government. It would be recalled that as part of his Presidential mandate of reforming and restructuring the Service, he had established the Customs police, patterned after the military police last year. The core mandate of the Unit is to ensure discipline in the Service . Prior to the creation of the Customs Service, most officer s hide their uniform in their bag and only to change in the office. Some of them after the close of work at the seaport s or land border stations tug their uniform in their bag instead of wearing to show that they were officers.

The situation was more worrisome as some officers on anti-smuggling operations cover their name tags as if what they were asked to do to checkmate smugglers involved in illegal business was illegal. Many officers who may not have come to terms with the Customs reforms may have fallen out of favour with the Customs police officers who stood by the mandate given to them to ”ensure total discipline in the Service. In Lagos, officers of the Customs were said to be operating from the Zonal office and the Ikeja Customs training College where they watch over the officers at the Commands.

Another major innovation of the Administration in the Service, was the establishment of the Strike Force, with a Core mandate to ”checkmate the activities of officers and to operate under a different strategy from the defunct Compliance team. The Customs Comptroller General , may have given the team too much powers that its officers could enter into any Customs Area Command on ”suspicion of fraudulent activities taking place or about to take place with a view to ”blocking all revenue leakages from the system.

The Comptroller General appointment of Abdullahi Dahiru Kirawa, a Deputy Comptroller of Customs as the National Coordinator of the Strike Force team early this year may have forced the team members to the right ways instead of seeing it as an opportunity to make quick money. Investigation by the Magazine shows that Kirawa and his Commanders are keeping a close tab on the Area Comptroller at the seaport and land border stations to force them to do the right as directed by the Comptroller General. There are indications that some suspected Containers that had been released at the seaports, particular, Tin-can Island port had been intercepted and transferred to the team operational base at the Customs training College, Ikeja.

A senior Customs officers told the Magazine that it was a welcome relief for the Service, for Ali, to have deemed it necessary to introduce the Strike Force team. He noted that in the south west alone, Shuaibu, an Assistant Comptroller and the Commander of the Strike Force team and his officers have formed an impregnable wall at the seaports and land border stations that fraudulent agents and smugglers are no longer finding it funny including their officers collaborators. the Comptrollers may have terms with the mandate of the Strike Force team that they have never criticised the activities of the Command and his officers at the their weekly Zonal meetings, which also had in attendance the Strike Team National Coordinator, Kirawa and Shuaibu, his Commander in attendance. they may have realised the need to open up to them to avoid running into trouble with Ali, the Comptroller General, who supervises their operations from his office.

The officer disclosed that the Strike Force, had virtually taken over the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A ,warehouses at Ikeja, to keep their intercepted and detained goods. This may have given Adamu Aliyu, Mohammed, the Comptroller of the Command an ammunition to call on Riks Lura, a Chief Superintendent of Customs and Head of the Operations and Lagos Roving team and his officers who have done the Command proud with their spectacular Contraband seizures to put in more efforts to flood the warehouses with Contrabands and vehicles from the land border stations and Containers from the seaports.

Riks may have heeded to the Comptroller ‘s directive as he had positioned his men at strategic locations at the seaports and land border stations. Ali may have known about the space Constraint s being experienced at the warehouses in Customs formations across the country that he had bowed to pressure to auction the Contrabands , Vehicles and Containers that had occupied space in the warehouse for yeas. The Magazine learnt that Adamu Aliyu, CoMPTroller, FOU, and other Comptrollers had forwarded the records of the inventory of the Contrabands in their warehouses to the Customs Headquarters , waiting for the Comptroller General , to send the Assistant Comptroller General and his Committee , who would handle the exercise.

insiders are optimistic that the planned auctioning of Contrabands in the Customs warehouses across the country would create spaces for more Contraband seizures , particular in FOU, zONE a, where the Operations and Lagos Roving team, Rapid Response and the Command Strike Force, work daily intercepting and transferring Contrabands and vehicles to the warehouse. The Customs Comptroller General may have agreed to auction the Contrabands in the warehouses to the public because not many people could bargain for the Contrabands , Condemned vehicles and overtime cargoes on -line. Many who have made efforts to do so were said to have been duped by scammers.