EXTRA: Customs officer promotes self to CG, asks Hameed Ali to hand over

Nura Dahiru, an assistant superintendent of customs, on Monday promoted himself to the rank of deputy comptroller-general of Customs (DCG), claiming he was directed by President Muhammadu Buhari to assume the office of comptroller-general (CG). 

Sources at the Customs headquarters in Abuja told TheCable that Dahiru walked in Monday morning wearing the new rank, and went into the office of Hameed Ali, the comptroller general. 

“As he came in, officers were saluting him because he was wearing that rank,” one of the sources said. 

“Sometime in May, he had posted on Facebook that he had been directed by the president to take over from Hameed Ali, and today when we saw him in the new rank, we thought, indeed, he has been promoted and so directed by the president. He went inside the CG’s office, sat in the waiting room, expecting the CG to handover to him.”

Joseph Attah, spokesman of customs, said Dahiru was not in the right frame of mind when he took the action.

“What happened was that, an assistant superintendent of Customs came to the office wearing the rank of a Deputy Comptroller General,” he said.

“From questions and answers that followed, it was obvious that he was not in the right frame of mind, so a doctor was immediately invited. He is presently undergoing medical examination at the medical unit of the service.”

TheCable understands that Dahiru needed to be promoted at least nine times to rise to the height of comptroller-general.