Drug addicts, bribe takers have infiltrated Nigeria Customs – C-G Ali

RUTH DAVID, Bauchi

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has warned officers and men of the service against abuse of hard drugs as well as receiving bribe taking or kick back through goods undervalued.

The Comptroller-General, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd) who gave the warning in Bauchi while addressing officers of zone D and the state command Wednesday said: “If any one of you is into hard drugs and not caught, he should stop it or if you are inkling to take it, you better stop or else you find yourself to be blame”.

Continuing, Ali said: “Those of you who are into hard drugs, you should get them out of the service and hand them over the NDLEA for prosecution. That is what is supposed to be done. We cannot condone this anymore, you are warned.”

According to him, ‘during recruitment in the past, armed robbers will come and they will be recruited, because they have Godfathers; drugs addict will come who have been to rehabilitation centre 10 times as well and will come into customs and today we are having drug addicts in customs. That we are paying money to rehabilitate them is despicable.’

“We are supposed to protect this nation by making sure all these hard drugs do not come into the country and here we are with people taking these hard drugs, do you think these people working at the border will stop these drugs from coming into country? Certainly no.”

Also, the Custom boss warned officers against kickbacks and indiscipline, “anyone indicted of indiscipline and corruption would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali insisted that officers under his watch must rid themselves of kickbacks and corruption or be prepared to face maximum years in prison.

According to him, the era of indiscipline, undeserved promotion and deployment to “juicy commands” are over. “The system cannot continue. We are seen as corrupt officers because we prefer to collect bribe. But we don’t bother to check goods irrespective of what they carry, just because of our corrupt tendencies.

“Henceforth, anybody caught collecting kick back or involved in any act of indiscipline will be investigated and if found guilty action will be taken on the officer.”