The Controller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), has been called upon to tender his resignation to give room for a corrupt-free customs organisation.
The vice-chairman, Senate Committee on Customs and Excise, Senator Francis Fadahunsi, made the call while fielding questions from newsmen yesterday.
Senator Fadahunsi, a retired Assistant-Controller of Customs, disclosed that corruption has been entrenched in the Nigeria Customs Service under the watch of Hameed Ali, owing to his inexperience in handling customs affairs as an outsider from the military.
The lawmaker questioned the legality of customs officers going to raid people’s houses at night under the guise of retrieving and stopping smuggled goods and reselling the same goods to unsuspecting Nigerians, a situation he described as perverse corruption and robbery.
The Osun lawmaker decried a situation whereby the NCS is understaffed and no recruitment has been done since the inception of the Controller General of Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd), but personnel cost has consistently grown to N99 billion.
Speaking further, the senator questioned the intelligence behind border closures, a situation he said has deprived Nigeria of huge revenue-generation.
He, therefore, called for the resignation of the customs boss, Hameed Ali, and a forensic audit be conducted on the administration of the Controller-General.
