Customs boss agrees to pay entitlements... As 22 ex-servicemen die of frustration
Dele Aderibigbe and Folashade Alli, Lagos
Hamman Bello,
Comptroller
General, NCSThe new Comptroller
General of Customs,
Mr. Hamman Bello Ahmed, has finally agreed to meet with Customs officers downsized in June 2007 so as to pay their entitlements, after confirming that at least 22 of the 2,500 officers who were booted out of the service in a downsizing exercise have died.
His agreement to sit with them so as to decide when their entitlements would be paid however only came after one of them, Superintendent Ibok Udoh, committed suicide a fortnight ago, as a result of frustration.
He was said to have gotten tired of life after his wife abandoned him as a result of intimidating threats from his landlord who had served him quit notice over his inability to pay his rent. Besides, one of the 22 who was shot and now paralyzed over spinal cord injury sustained when rampaging armed robbers along Abuja Gwagwalada Road shot him.
The victim was on his way to Abuja making desperate efforts to plead that his entitlement from the management of the Nigeria Customs Service be paid. It will be recalled that about 2,500, officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) were sent packing by the service on the ground that they do not possess first degrees, a new policy formulated by the Federal Government in line with the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s ports reform exercise in 2006.
Ironically majority of the affected Officers had served between thirty and thirty-three years in service and had few years left to retire voluntarily.
Lamenting the deplorable situation of the downsized custom officers in Lagos yesterday, the President of the Association of Downsized Customs Officers, Mr. Orji Okoro, said most of the death occurred due to frustration occa-sioned by the inability to cope with the challenges of unprepared retirement.
Okoro posited that after all efforts to prevail on former Comptroller General of Customs (CGS) Elder Jacob Buba Gyang failed, they had to assemble and come under the umbrella known as the Association of Downsized Customs Officers in January this year.
Meanwhile, seasoned maritime analyst, Dr. Olu Ologbese has advised the new Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Mr. Hamman Bello Ahmed to avoid the pitfalls of his predecessor, the neglect of officers’ welfare, particularly their living conditions if he hoped to last the distance.
Offering his advise in Lagos, Dr. Ologbese also expressed the regret that it was unfortunate that the seven per cent statutory allocatio to the customs woefully failed to register the desired impact on the conditions of the rank and file.
“It was unfortunate that the former Customs boss ignored the plights of his men even as he distanced himself from the people who were privy to the poor living conditions of the officers and men of the service”, he lamented.
He noted that there were situations when transfer allowances were not paid and affected officers spent several months sleeping in the commands’ offices across the nation while a few top brass were living like kings.
“One needs to see the condition at which Customs men and women operate. Apart from the fact that their senior officers do not have official quarters like their counterparts in the civil service or other military and paramilitary agencies, the reverse is the case for the officers and men of the Customs.”
“The worst off where the women Customs officers on transfer to another station without provisions for accommodation” he said further, expressing the hope that the on-going reforms would bring to an end, what he perceived as serious neglect.
FG set to tackle rising cost of clearing goods
Consequent upon
complaints from
stakeholders in respect of increasing high cost of clearing goods at the ports, the Federal Government has initiated plans towards establishing an appropriate economic regulator for the maritime industry.
Minister of State for Water Transportation, Prince John Okechukwu Emeka, disclosed this last week in Abuja, at the opening ceremony of the 10th Maritime Seminar for Judges organized by the Federal Ministry of Transportation, the Nigerian Shipper’s Council (NSC) in collaboration with the National Judicial Institute (NJI), pointing out that Government believes there may actually be a strong reason for urgent intervention.
He noted that while government’s intention in respect of the ports reforms were already being realized, stakeholders’ reactions had also shown that certain aspects of the reforms were “arguably radical and ambitious”, hence the need for new attention in order to maximize the benefits and ensure their continued operations “clothed in appropriate and lucid legal framework which would cater for the effective realization of the reform objectives.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mr Adetokunbo Kayode, has made a case for statutory allocations for important seminar and workshops like the NJI/ NSC highlighting that such trainings should be seen as important conti-nuing education platforms, particularly in areas of law and shipping.
The Minister who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria observed that shipping was not only important to the development of tourism in the country, but that the operation of cruise tourism can only be undertaken hand in hand with shipping and water transportation.
