Nigeria Custom officers faces a stiff penalty on self impose ranks.

Nigerian
Customs Service, NCS,
management’s decision to clampdown
on officers from the ranks of Assistant
Comptroller of Customs to the lowest
cadre, over their alleged indiscriminate
allotment of ranks to themselves.
The development, it was
gathered, has
made some of the affected officers to
start running helter skelter with a view
to scuttling the exercise.
Some affected officers have resorted to
using their godfathers to stop the
management from implementing the
decision.
Effort to reach the Service Spokesman,
Mr. Adewale Adebayo, a Deputy
Comptroller of Customs was futile as
his phone rang several times without
being picked up.
Confirming the development, Mr Chris
Osunkwo, a Chief Superi-ntendent of
Customs, told Saturday Vanguard that
some officers have refused to play by
rules and regulations guiding Customs
promotions, transfer and deployment,
adding that the indiscipline prompted
the current management to embark on
the de-ranking exercise.
He explained that a lot of people in the
service had abused the rules and
regulations of the service because
they believe they have godfathers that
can speak for them.
Osunkwo, who is also the Spokesman
of the Tin-Can Island Customs
Command, disclosed that the same
directive was given during the tenure
of Mr. Abdullahi Dikko but the directive
was not implemented. “Even during
Oga Dikko’s time as Comptroller –
General, this same directive was
released but nobody cared to enforce it
and I don’t know why they refused to
obey but now the new management is
taking steps, to enforce the directive.”
Explaining further, Osunkwo said that
there are three cadres in the Customs
Service: Customs Assistant Cadre,
Inspectorate Cadre and Superintendent
Cadre.
He also said if anybody wanted to
migrate from one cadre to the other,
there are conditions an officer must
fulfil before migrating,adding that what
obtains these days is that people just
ascribe ranks to themselves without
following due process.
He disclosed that this was not the first
time such a directive was being
released, adding that some officers
flout directives because they believe
they have godfathers, who can speak
for them.
His words: “People ab initio refused to
abide by the rules and regulations that
guide our appointments, promotions
and deployments.
“Officers know that these things have
been spelt out; it is just that a lot of
them believe that they have godfathers
here and there, that is why they
sometimes flout some of these
directives. If you are not a graduate or
Higher National Diploma holder, and
you join the Customs, you are not a
commissioned officer yet until you do
what we call lateral conversion.
“We have three cadre points of entry
into the Nigeria Customs Service and
they are the Customs Assistant Cadre,
the Inspectorate Cadre and
Superintendent cadre. If you want to
migrate from one cadre to another
cadre, there are conditions in the
scheme of service which should
qualify you to migrate and not for you
to ascribe rank to yourself.
‘’If you have any added qualification to
entry qualification, come forward and
management will verify if you got
approval to embark on your
educational pursuit. If this is
confirmed, you are automatically up
graded to the cadre of your wish. But
what obtains among some officers is
that they get additional qualification
most times without approval and
before you know it, they are wearing
ranks they are not entitled to wear.
Whether these additional qualifications
are fake or not, nobody cares to find
out.”
Order on wearing appropriate rank
In like manner, the Public Relation
Officer of the Apapa Area One
Command of the Customs Service, Mr.
Emmanuel Ekpa told Saturday
Vanguard that the Comptroller General,
Col. Hameed Ali (retd) is working on a
directive that officers should put on
their appropriate rank.
Ekpa also confirmed the fact that
officers had refused to wear their
appropriate rank in the past, even
when the last Comptroller-General of
Customs Mr. Dikko Abdullahi tried to
address the issue.