Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, over the weekend, said contrary to the widely held notion, majority of Customs officers are not involved in corrupt acts.
Hameed Ali also outlined a few of the steps he would be taking to achieve his objectives as the head of Customs.
The retired officer stated that the Customs would soon begin the review of irregular promotion, posting and recruitment, that has taken place in the past.
Hameed Ali spoke to journalists at the Customs Training School in Ikeja, Lagos.
He said:
“In every conversation and meeting with my men, I have told them that I realized that there are so many anomalies as regard to their posting, promotion and recruitment.
“We will set up a committee to review the whole thing. Where people have not been promoted out of no fault of theirs we will address it and where people have been promoted based on godfatherism we will review it.”
“Where people have refused to go to courses because they think they are sitting on a desk where they make some ‘egunje’ we know what to do. There are so many internal things that I don’t need to come out and start reeling them because we have taken note of all this and I and my senior management have resolved to look at this and we will ensure that there is equity and justice in the service.”
“Most customs men and officers are not corrupt but what happened is that because our activities relate to the member of the public, and if there is one bad egg the news goes around so far and the impression today in Nigeria is that we are all corrupt because of the activities of some few bad eggs and I have said that we must do some house cleansing and get rid of those bad eggs in other to strengthen the customs.
“There is no organisiation in the country that will beat its chest and say no corrupt element in it so. I cannot also say there are no corrupt elements in customs and I want to say this and say it with all sense of responsibility that in customs, there are few corrupt elements.”
