The Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has filed a N500 million criminal suit against the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, over the brutal assault on one Yomi Olomofe, a journalist at Seme border post of the NCS last year.
It will be recalled that the Badagry based journalist was severely beaten on June 22, 2015 by hoodlums believed to be working for the NCS at Seme border and left him in a pool of blood at a refuse dump.
In a fundamental rights suit filed by Mr. Jiti Ogunye on behalf of the NUJ and the brutalised journalist, the applicant is asking for N500 million as special and exemplary damages for the violation of the applicant’s rights.
Joined as Respondents in the suit are the Comptroller of Customs, Mohammed Ndalati; Deputy Comptroller, Emmanuel Nkemdirim; Assistant Comptroller, Ibrahim Turaki and the Comptroller General, Ahmed Ali.
Others are the Nigerian Customs Service, Chief Sam of Ibiye, Alhaji Momoh (aka Basket), Mr. Shehu and Mr. Elijah.
In the suit, the applicant asked the Court for a declaration that the beating meted out to him by the Respondents, which inflicted bodily and internal injuries on him on June 25, 2015 in the premises of the NCS, Seme, was “capable of infringing on his right to life as guaranteed by Section 33 (1) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.”
Beside, he prayed the court to declare that the beating on the said date in the course of discharging his professional duties and obligations constituted an infringements on his rights to freedom of expression and the press as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
Speaking, the National President of NUJ, Waheed Odusile vowed that the union will not allow the matter to be swept under the carpet, saying they will see it to its logical conclusion. According to the lawyer, the brutal assault on the journalist was in clear violation of his fundamental human rights, adding that medical reports indicated that the journalist who is still recuperating suffered severe injury and psychological trauma after the incident.
The human rights lawyer said it was unfortunate that journalists that played a prominent role in the return of democracy to the country have continued to be battered by security agents and the powers that be.
Some operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and policemen yesterday raided the Abuja residence of the immediate past Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Abdullahi Inde Dikko.
EFCC
The raid was said to be in connection with the ongoing probe of the tenure of Dikko who retired from service on August 3, 2015.
But Dikko and his wife were said to be away from Abuja as at the time of the invasion.
The agents, however, met Dikko’s children at home and they allowed the operatives unhindered access to the house which is located on 6, Ahmed Musa, Street, Jabi, Abuja.
According to a highly-placed source, who spoke in confidence, said the security agents came in two vehicles with registration numbers RSH 555 AB and BWA 645 GA.
The source said the agents presented a warrant before entering the building to conduct a “search”.
The source said: “The operatives and policemen came at about 7am and for about four and a half hours, they ransacked the residence of the former Comptroller-General.
“Although they did not molest anyone in the house, they ignored our plea that the ex-CG and his wife were not around.
“They were certainly looking for some documents or evidence, but they were not forthcoming on their mission.”
Findings, however, revealed that the ex-CG is being investigated over alleged curious N3billion vote spent by the NCS a few days to the handing over to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The said cash, which was allegedly spent on the directive of the presidency, was regarded as “unjustifiably used” by the customs management.
“Before the handover to the new government, there were curious expenditures incurred by the Customs Service acting on orders from above.
“Based on shock findings and clues, the EFCC is investigating the allegations. The operatives went to Dikko’s residence to conduct a search and effect his arrest.
“There are also issues bordering on the alleged diversion of customs revenues to fund the campaign of the PDP and ex-President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 and 2015.”
No EFCC official was available for comments as at the time of filing this report.
Before the EFCC’s raid, a pressure group identified as the Nigerian Customs Transparency Initiative(NCTI) had petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over alleged abuse of office, disappearance of some containers and N3.5 billion incurred on the installation of Internet facility by the Customs Service.
In the petition, which was signed by one Dr. James Onoja, the NCTI said: “The Customs Board was kept in the dark as promotions were manipulated and Customs officials were selectively elevated. Bootlickers, favourites and stooges were elevated to juicy and sumptuous positions and postings to Lagos and Port-Harcourt ports.
“Meritocracy was slaughtered on the altar of mediocrity and reckless abuse of office with unmitigated religious and ethnic bias. Purchase of vehicles: Prices of B.M.W vehicles for senior officers were criminally inflated. About N3.5 billion naira was siphoned and frittered away through an internet project that never saw daylight.
“Thirteen containers at T.C.I.P. were impounded sometime ago. It was claimed that four Iranians were arrested with the containers, two of which disappeared into the thin air.
“There is false declaration of Annual Customs Revenue Generation. In order to give false impression of excellent performance, the Customs Service adds figure of the Value Added Tax (VAT) which Customs collects on behalf of Federal inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to the revenue derived from custom duties whereas the same VAT figure has been included in the VAT revenue declared and announced by FIRS as required by law, thereby creating a misleading duplication of revenue figure derived from VAT.
“The contract for the construction of Customs Staff College was aided and abetted by a Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, who was not a member of Nigerian Customs Board. The company used for the contract was registered three weeks after the award of the contract. Also, the estate named Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Customs Barracks at Kuje was purchased at the inflated rate of N4billion and renovated with N10billion.”
The ICPC was still on the investigation of the petition as at the time of filing this report.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col.(Rtd) has appointed of Six acting Deputy Comptrollers-General of Customs in the on-going re-organisation in the Service.
Customs CG, Hameed Ali
A statement by the spokesman, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, gave the names as: Idris Suleiman (Finance Administration and Technical Service); Iya Umar (Tariff and Trade); and Dan Ugo (Enforcement Investigation and Inspection).
The rest are: Grace Adeyemo (Excise, FTZ & Industrial Incentive) ;Austin Warikoru (Human Resource Development) ; and Paul Ukaigwe (Strategic Research and Policy)
Similarly the C-G appointed Eight Assistant Comptrollers- General.
They are: Umar Sanusi (ACG Headquarters); Funsho Adegoke (ACG ICT); Mohammed Abbas mni (ACG Board); Olatunji Aremu mni (Command & Staff College) and Charles Edike (Zonal Coordinator Zone . The rest are: Abubakar Dangaladima (Zonal Coordinator Zone ‘B’; Azarema Abdulkadir (Zonal Coordinator Zone ‘C’); and Chidi Augustine (Zonal Coordinator Zone ‘D’)
The DCGS and ACG are to immediately take the new positions in acting capacity.
Seven Officers were equally redeployed in the new exercise. They are: ACG Adesina Odunmbaku (Finance and Technical Service); ACG Robert Alu (Tariff and Trade); ACG Ade Dosumu (Enforcement and Drugs); ACG Monday Abueh mni (Excise & Industrial Incentive); ACG Ahmed Mohammed mni (Human Resource Management) ; ACG Patience Iferi (Strategic Research and Policy) and Comptroller Aminu Abba (Technical Services)
The Changes take immediate effect
The Comptroller-General of Customs urged the newly – appointed officers to redouble their efforts to justify their new responsibilities.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, retired Col. Hameed Ali, also in Abuja denied sacking 400 officers in the ongoing restructuring of the service.
He told newsmen that he was rather holding meetings with stakeholders to strategise on how to achieve better service delivery in the country.
He said, “I am not aware of any sacking; you are just telling me; I don’t know.”
Ali said that the essence of his visit to some stakeholders was to create a common platform that would drive the mandate and enable the service to achieve its set goals by the Federal Government.
He said that there was need for Nigeria to focus more on export than import, adding that Nigeria could not grow as a nation if it kept on importing goods and services.
Ali said there was need to review policies so as to focus on how to regenerate exportation.
“We must begin to focus on export than import; we are used to importing more.
He noted that 99 per cent of NCS business was clearing of imports.
He said only little was being exported and “we cannot grow as a nation if we keep importing”.
“Anytime we import, we are spending money out to somebody. We are growing somebody else industry; we should look at the policy in order to grow our economy.
“Therefore if we want to grow our economy, we have to put more emphasis on exportation than importation.
“ We are doing restructuring; I have mandate given to me by Mr President to reform, structure and to raise revenues.
“And in the course of restructuring, a lot of things will have to happen and the visit is one of them,’’ Ali said.
Ali visited the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) where he called for assistance from the institution to enable customs to build its capacity and train officers to handle procurement based on the Established Act.
“We are here because procurement is one area that needs no mistake; I can afford to make mistake in some areas but there are two areas that I dare not make mistake, accounting and procurement.
“I realise that we in customs have some deficiency when it comes to capacity to be able to handle procurement.
“We want to get it right this time and the only way we can get it right is to come and learn from BPP.
“We are here to discuss with you to know how best we can further strengthen the synergy and also to have your support; so we can together drive the set objectives of this administration,’’ he added.
Responding, the Director-General, BPP, Mr Emake Eze, said that 350 officers from various agencies of the federation would undergo two weeks certification conversion course starting from Tuesday.
Eze said that the essence of the course was to train the procurement officers to be well established as professionals.
He advised the service to always recruit applicants with some qualification on procurement so that they can grow on the line.
Eze added that this would help the service to build a better department to handle its procurement activities.
“We have about 350 officers across the federation that applied for conversion and the officers were screened and only 168 was approved to undertake the course.
“I will like to appeal that in line with government circular, customs should get a separate department to be fully responsible for procurement.
“I am happy about your commitment to do the right thing because that is what drives any nation.”
He said that with the commitment of the leadership of the service, “ I hope customs will witness improved services much more than you met the service.”
The BPP boss presented a legal framework guiding the operations of public expenditure in Nigeria to the comptroller general of customs as a tool to enhance the service in the area of procurement.
The customs boss also visited the Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, National Automotive Council and others.
The Nigeria Customs Service has arrested four Chinese who are in the business of smuggling and storing prohibited textile material in private warehouses at Gandun Albasa commercial Layout of Kano, Kano state.
Leader of the CGC Task Force, Deputy Comptroller of Customs, Hassan Shallangwa said the operations that lead to the seizure and arrest of these suspects was planned and coordinated by the Comptroller-General of Customs Dikko Inde Abdullahi, CFR.
Shallangwa said the CGC had received information which he investigated and sent undercover operatives to monitor the area until when he was certain that smuggled textile materials were being stored in some private warehouses, before he directed the Headquarters Anti-Smuggling Task Force to storm the area with a view to seizing the smuggled goods and arresting all that are connected to it.
Shallangwa decried a situation where other nationals would chose to disrespect the laws of the land and engage in activities that can negatively affect the ongoing efforts of the Government to industrialize the Country and raise the standard of living of Nigerians.
He Said “We are Nigerians and have no other country to call our own, hence will not tolerate any person, no matter where he comes from to disrespect the laws of our country”. So far, six warehouses have being opened and found to be fully stocked with smuggled assorted textile materials.
Over twenty other warehouses are suspected to be containing same items. All the warehouses are sealed and investigation into these illegalities has already commenced.
The valuation unit of the Service are presently working on the quantity and value of the seizure which is expected to run into billions of naira.
Shallangwa assured law abiding business men and women that they have nothing to fear as the Service is not out to witch hunt any person but determined to cripple illegitimate businesses and facilitate legitimate trade.
The four Chinese persons are to be charged to court immediately. Joseph Attah Deputy Public Relations Officer
