A former Comptroller-General of
Nigerian Customs Service, Bello
Haliru, on Tuesday said wearing
the service’s uniform was party of
its regulations. Speaking to Premium Times, Haliru
said during his time as Customs
boss, he wore the uniform of the
agency, even though he was a
political appointee and not a
career officer. In 1988, Haliru was appointed
Customs CG by General Ibrahim
Babangida. He was the first individual to be
chosen outside the service. Haliru was relieved of his duty in
1994 by former military ruler,
General Sani Abacha. Haliru, who is also a former
Minister of Communications from
2001 to 2003, said he was duty-
bound to obey all the rules and
regulations of the agency following
his appointment. He said, “The moment I was
appointed, I became a career
Customs officer. “I knew I must comply with all
rules and regulations of the
organisation I am leading and that
included wearing a uniform.” There has been controversy over
the refusal of current Customs CG,
Hameed Ali to wear the service’s
uniform. Since his appointment in August
2015, Ali has resisted pressure on
him to wear the khaki, saying last
week that he was “not appointed
Comptroller-General to wear
uniform.” Speaking on the matter Haliru said
he did not have sufficient
knowledge about Ali’s
appointment. “It depends on the terms of his
employment. I don’t know the
terms of his employment. “But as for me, when I was tapped
to lead Customs, having accepted, I
had to comply with all the Customs
regulations. “Wearing uniform is part of the
service regulation. When you
accept the appointment, you’re
subject to the service regulations,”
he said. It was reported that Ali, a retired
Army Colonel once said uniformed
men do not wear uniform twice. But findings revealed his claims to
be unfounded. Haladu Hananiya, a former Corps
Marshal of the Federal Road Safety
Commission, who before his
appointment by former president
Olusegun Obasanjo was a retired
Major General, wore the uniform of the agency. The acting spokesman of the
Nigerian Customs Service, Joseph
Attah, declined comments about
the uniform controversy. He said he would rather speak on
the activities of Ali since he
assumed office rather than
dissipate energy over uniform. “He was appointed from outside
the service to carry out three
mandates. He was appointed to
restructure, reform and raise
revenue for the country and he has
been found to have performed greatly.” He added, “I will rather talk about
how Customs has been faring
under him. “Under him, a lot of repositions
had taken place. There’s a
reinvigoration now in all
departments and corruption is
being fought from every angle in
the service. “We have zero-tolerance for
corruption and have also tried so
much in the area of revenue
generation. “You’re aware of the pump action
rifles that we intercepted a few
weeks ago. “There are the kinds of things we
should be talking about.”
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