Posted by In accordance with the recently approved Nigeria Customs Act 2023, the Leadership Integrity Forum (LIF) has requested that President Bola Tinubu remove Comptroller-General of Customs Hameed Ali (rtd) from his position.
According to xanderetch, former President Buhari signed the Nigerian Customs Service Act in May, just a few days before his term was up.
The Communications Manager LIF, Clement Adesanya, asserted in a letter titled “Sit Tight Syndrome An Anathema of African Culture, Nigeria Customs Service as Case Study,” that Hameed Ali’s continued tenure in office violates the agency’s legislation and is illegal.
Adesanya emphasized that Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) should be advised to permit the orderly handover of administrative machinery in order to make way for the new lease on life of economic trade facilitation policies provided by the new Act. He said that the Nigeria Customs Service is governed by the rule of law and not by force.
The group cited several sections of the Nigeria Customs Service Act, stating that Section 14(1)(a) of the Act mandates that “The President shall appoint a career officer from the service, not below the rank of Assistant-Comptroller General (who shall be responsible for the overall management of the service) and be accountable for all revenue collections and all expenditures made under this Act”) be appointed.
Under section 14(b)(c)(e)(f)(g)(h) of the Act, which contains the provisions for appointing the Chief Executive of the Customs Service formed by the Act, the Comptroller-General was given additional responsibilities.
According to Adesanya, “Everyone expects that the former Comptroller-General, who is not a career officer from the Service of Nigeria Customs, should have vacated his seat for the proper and administrative operation of the Act since a law comes into effect after the President’s assent or when it is intended by the Act.