The names of a total 247 officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) who committed one offence or the other who have been either dismissed, demoted, cautioned or forcefully retired have been release.
This is the first time the service will release all the names of affected officers in one swoop.
The list was contained in an internal publication of the service called ‘Monthly Order’.
The Publication which was suspended since 2015 as Col. Hameed Ali took over, resurrected this month with the backlog of both past and present officers of the service who have cases to answer since Ali took over.
The list also contains dismissed officers who were connected to the various arms imports into the country in the last nine months.
Meanwhile the Nigeria Customs Service has commenced publication of the monthly orders for circulation to all commands and formations of the service nationwide.
The monthly order, which is a summary of major management decisions and relevant information for all its officers, is published by the headquarters of the service.
Confirming this development, spokesman for the service, Deputy Comptroller Joseph Attah described the publication as a literature for internal circulation aimed at keeping officers abreast with relevant information that can be of use to them in the course of service.
On the insinuations that the customs recently embarked on a mass sack of some of its officers as recently misconstrued by a section of the media who saw a list of customs officers with disciplinary cases that has been dispensed with, Attah said, ”Information found in the monthly order to contain names of over 200 officers who had disciplinary cases and were either made to face various degrees of sanctions or exonerated, is a product of old decisions taken on many cases in the past.
”The list looks long because for a while the monthly order was not printed and a backlog of information had to feature in the revived edition. The list is actually longer than what was published.
”More information will continue to feature in subsequent editions of the monthly order and it may include more names of persons affected by several management decisions in the past, like promotions, redeployment, retirements, dismissals and other actions that affects the service operatives’.
”It is purely an internal communication material within the service for information and ease of references among service personnel in the customs”.
Attah who reacted to insinuations that the service may have carried out a mass sack of officers, also added that the Controller General of Customs zero tolerance for corruption drive remains in full gear even as officers are keying in, in compliance with the agenda.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
