‘Why Senate summoned Customs boss’

Senator Dino Melaye (APC - Kogi) PHOTO: TWITTER/NIGERIAN SENATE

The Senate has listed its grouses against the Comptroller General of Customs, rtd Col Hameed Ali.The Upper Chamber had last Thursday, summoned Ali, after adopting a motion raised by Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West). The senators were particularly irked by remarks allegedly made by Ali that seemed to indicate the Senate had no control on the Nigeria Customs Service.

The Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC Lagos West) yesterday explained that the Upper Legislative Chamber was also unhappy with Ali’s alleged refusal to respect the authority of the finance minister, who had the supervisory responsibility over the Customs Service.

Adeola said: “The All Progressives Congress APC-led government of President Muhammadu Buhari was elected on adherence to the rule of law and renunciation of impunity in any form. The story we hear daily is the arrogance and high-handedness of the CG and name-dropping of the president.

He further said: “We had it on good authority of his reluctance to answer to the minister of finance as stipulated in constitution. We that were elected cannot look the other way while the people we represent are subjected to avoidable hardship orchestrated by an unelected appointee in a bid to cure the inefficiencies of the agency he leads. We are in a democracy,” he explained.

The lawmaker further said that the Senate’s resolution for Ali to appear in the Nigeria Custom Service uniform and rank to explain his refusal to suspend the policy on duty on vehicles and other recent acts of the Customs was to protect the organisational integrity and discipline.

Adeola, who is also member of the Finance, Marine, Interior and Science and Technology committees of the Senate, said it is regrettable that as a retired army colonel, who should know the importance of uniforms, the Custom boss wants to demean and undermine the symbolic importance of uniforms, discipline as well as the authority it confers on the agency in its operation as a lawful body.

“We once had a Major General Haladu Hananiya as head of Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) wearing the agency’s uniform as well as a Major Danjuma Maigari wearing the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) agency uniform in Lagos State all in a bid to promote the agencies they lead,” he said.

Adeola maintained that military and paramilitary uniforms, inclusive of ranks are part of the symbol of legitimate authority conferred on the wearer to carry out certain duties on behalf of the government.

According to the senator, to address the concern of officers and men of the Customs Service on the appointment of an ‘outsider’ to head the agency, there may be need to amend the Nigerian Customs Act to restrict appointment of CG to career officers as is done in the Nigerian Police Force, the Nigerian Immigrations and the Nigerian Prisons Service.

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