Strong indications have emerged that the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service Col. Hameed Ali, may sanction some officers and men of the Service over the gross abuses of the rice import policy though the land borders, leading to massive loss of revenue.
The service had October last year relaxed the restriction placed on the importation of rice through the land borders, as part of measures to check the smuggling of the products through unapproved routes.
National Public Relations Officer of the service, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, who gave the hint while announcing a reversal of the rice border import policy, said that there were allegations that some officers and men of the service, especially at the various border commands are instrumental to the gross abuse of the policy.
He said that this compelled the Service to reverse the policy regime about seven months after its re-introductions. Adeniyi confirmed that the office of the CG had been inundated with complaints and petitions over the complicity of some officers and men in the rice import abuse, through which large consignments of the products were massively smuggled into the country.
“The Comptroller-General of Customs has however noted that officers and men of the service cannot be totally exonerated from the abuses associated with the implementation of the policy on rice imports, as his office has been inundated with reports of collusion between them and rice importers”, The Customs image maker had said. Meanwhile, it was gathered that the Comptroller General, who was embarrassed by the conduct of some of the officers and men of the service, had constituted a high powered committee to investigate the alleged complicity of officers and men of the affected commands with a view to getting to the roots of the issue. A competent source at the service however disclosed that the CG has sworn that officers and men of the service indicted in the crime would be severely dealt with in line with the extant laws and code of conduct of the service.
The source also disclosed that the CG felt very bad with the turn of events in the rice border import policy, especially given the attention it generated, as it drew the attention of the National Assembly and even the Ministry of Finance. “The CG views the allege role of these officers and men of the service more as trying to sabotage him and make him look stupid before the government and people of Nigeria because of the way and manner he defended the new policy”, the source also said.
Source: National Mirror
