The Acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, has said the service will continue to improve community relations in border areas to strengthen the discharge of its constitutional mandates.
This was disclosed in a statement on Thursday by the Customs spokesperson, Abdullahi Maiwada, noting that Adeniyi disclosed this when he received members of the Senate ad-hoc Committee on Customs and Excise, led by Senator Francis Ade Fadahunsi, on a courtesy visit at the Service’s corporate headquarters in Abuja.
On Wednesday, July 19, 2023, the Senate constituted an ad hoc committee to investigate the alleged incessant killings of people by officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service.
The Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, constituted a 7-man ad hoc committee during plenary after Abdulaziz Yar’adua, APC, Katsina Central,moved a motion to study the customs community relationship in the Katsina axis. He assigned Francis Fadahunsi (PDP, Osun Central), a retired Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs, to chair the committee.
While speaking on the recent fact-finding mission by committee members to some border areas in the country, Adeniyi reiterated their commitment to helping Customs enhance its policy of improving border relationships.
“We can’t afford to antagonise any member of our host community. Because at the end of the day, what use is the facilitation of trade and the revenue we are generating if the communities are dead? So whatever we do, we do it in the community’s interest; that’s the community we’re serving,” he said.
Fadahunsi, who had earlier submitted a progress report on their fact-finding visit to the CGC, promised him the Senate’s support in resolving misunderstandings with border communities.
Senator Fadahunsi, who commended the Acting Comptroller General’s approach towards improving community relations, also assured that his committee members would sustain a cordial working relationship with the Service, which will pave the way to achieving its target.
The delegation of the committee who attended the meeting were Shuaib Salisu, Ogun Central; Kawu Sumaila, Kano South; Tony Nwoye, Anambra North; Suleiman Sadiq, Kwara North; Abdulaziz Yar’adua, Katsina Central; and Adeola Olamilekan, Ogun Central.
