House Committee: Customs 15,000 Personnel Strength Grossly Inadequate

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has lamented that the current 15,000 personnel strength of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) was grossly inadequate.

The Chairman of the committee, Hon. Leke Abejide, stated this while briefing journalists yesterday in Abuja.

He said Customs ought to have 30,000 personnel strength to effectively carry out its constitutional mandate

The lawmaker expressed concern over what he called ”pressure” being mounted on members by constituents on the ongoing recruitment exercise of Customs.

He explained that the current recruitment was sequel to some vacancies that exist in certain cadres, adding that it was not a general recruitment.

Abejide stressed that the House was working on the Customs and Excise Management Repeal Bill to reform Customs, adding that the bill would enable NCS to recruit massively.

“The NCS ought to be 30,000 personnel but currently they are 15,000 personnel, this is grossly inadequate. Once the bill is ready and becomes law, many of our youths will be recruited,” he noted.

The lawmaker pointed out that the 774 local government areas in the country had been granted four candidates each, stressing that the NCS could not recruit beyond the given number.

According to him, every local government area is entitled to four candidates, so, to ensure fairness, the recruitment is being carried out to ensure equality across local government areas.

Abejide decried the level of pressure being mounted on members by their constituents to lobby for slots on their behalf, stressing that the amount of pressure necessitated the press briefing to correct the erroneous insinuation.

He explained, “I have been under intense pressure on this issue of recruitment and I became tired so l have to address this conference.

“The last exercise conducted, I received a lot of threats from Nigerians and some of them threatening to take NCS to court.”