Eromosele Abiodun
Importers and customs agents operating at the nation’s seaports have called on the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col Hameed Ali (rtd) to promote the acting Controller, Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja, Yahaya Usman and officers of the unit that intercepted explosives and Indian hemp smuggled into the country from Benin Republic.
The clearing agents said automatic promotion for the officers and Usman’s elevation to a full-fledged controller would serve as morale booster to other officers in the service.
The agents described the seizure as spectacular due to the current security threats and increased crime rates around the country, especially in the South-East and Northern part of the country
The FOU, Zone A, had last week intercepted 42 drums of calcium carbide and 2,843.6 kg of Indian hemp smuggled into the country from Benin Republic.
Usman had while addressing newsmen stated that the unit acted based on credible intelligence, disclosing that the explosives were smuggled into the country through the porous Ogun State borders.
In a chat with newsmen, the President-General, National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators, (NAFFAC), Bakare Adeyinka, said the seizure had shown how porous the Nigerian border in Ogun State has been despite the presence of Customs officers as well as other security agencies.
Adeyinka said the officers who intercepted the drums of explosives should be rewarded with automatic promotion.
“The right thing to boost the morale of officers that intercepted these drums of explosive is to compensate the officers who achieved this feat with automatic promotion. That is the way to make them do more because they could as well compromised and put the nation in a mess,” he said.
He stated further that the promotion would enjoin others to do more, as they will understand there is dignity in doing the right thing.
He said: “Doing this will make other officers understand that there is reward for doing the right thing but we shouldn’t also forget that the service need to up her game because the number of illegal arms in Nigeria is alarming and majority come in through the nation’s porous borders.”
Also speaking, a member of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Chukwudi Daniels, added that the hard work should be compensated by the service.
Daniels said the current security situation in the country make it imperative for the Customs management to boost the morale of officers who achieved feat like this.
He said: “What they achieved wasn’t a mere feat. They saved innocent souls that may have been lost if it get to the wrong hands.
“Though, it’s their job but when officers achieve spectacular feat, the same way we criticize them for doing something bad is the same way they should be appreciated when they save the country of impending doom and calamities.”
Automatic promotion, he said, would serve as reward for hard work adding that, “I support automatic promotion for officers who have gone all out to combat smuggling and intercept these explosives. There should always be reward for hard work. I think one way or the other, reward for officers who have done well to combat smuggling would help to discourage compromise by officers and results will be achieved.”
In the same vein, a clearing agent at the Tin Can Island port, Ebenezer Banwo, also urged the Customs CG to encourage officers who put their lives on the line to make spectacular seizures.
Banwo stated that the officers could have allowed themselves to be compromised by allowing the drums of explosive into the country to cause havoc.
He said: “They are super officers that needed to be rewarded with automatic promotion and commendation to tell others that integrity pays. The officers should also be used as poster boys of the service because for the explosives to have got into the country, some officers must have compromised until the team came to intercepted it.”
