29 Senior Officers of Nigerian Customs Service dismissed

Nige­ria Customs Services (NCS) has dismissed 29 senior offic­ers for various acts of gross mis­conduct in a major shakeup.Only last week, 17 junior of­ficers were fired from service for offences ranging from bribery, drug addiction, use of fake cer­tificates and absence from duty.The dismissed officers are among 44 senior officers who were punished for actions capa­ble of compromising the nation’s economy and security.Ten other officers were re­tired from Service while the ap­pointment of one was terminated.Also, four officers were warned to be of better conduct while another four who were in­vestigated and tried for some of­fences were exonerated.Four of the officers who got the hammer were of the rank of Deputy Comptroller of Customs while five were Assistant Comp­trollers. Others were seven Chief Superintendents of Customs and four Superintendents, among others.In a statement on Thursday by the Deputy Comptroller/Pub­lic Relations Officer of the NCS, Wale Adeniyi, he said the Comp­troller-General of Customs, Col. Hammed Ali (rtd) had made it clear upon assumption of duties that the Service will not compro­mise on corruption and indisci­pline among the officers’ corps.In line with this, he stated that the structure and process for investigation of offences was strengthened to handle cases re­ported promptly and profession­ally.