Customs: Why we retired 34 senior officers

The Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) has announced the retirement of 34 senior officers.

Wale Adeniyi, spokesman of the service, confirmed this in a statement issued on Friday, saying the development is part of the reorganisation of Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the service.

TheCable had earlier reported that 30 more officers will be retired from the service in addition to the five deputy-comptroller generals, who leaked their retirement letter to the media.

“As part of on-going re-organisation in Nigeria Customs Service, 34 senior officers have been retired from service with immediate effect,” the statement read.

“The re-organisation of the service is one of the core mandates of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd).

“Those affected in the exercise are five deputy comptrollers-general of Customs (DCGs) who have earlier given notification to the Comptroller-General for voluntary disengagement.

“They are John Atte MFR, Ibrahim Mera OON, Musa Tahir mni, Austin Nwosu and Akinade Adewuyi.

“Three others, of the rank of Assistant Comptroller-General are also affected in the re-organization exercise. They are Madu Mohammed mni, Secretary to the Nigeria Customs Board, Victor Gbemudu, Zonal Coordinator Zone ‘A’ and Bello Liman, Assistant Comptroller-General, (Headquarters). The rest are of the rank of Comptrollers serving in customs headquarters, zonal offices and various area commands.

“The comptroller-general of customs stated that the retirements were part of measures to kick-start the repositioning of the service for improved performance.”