Ali, Adeosun Rift Deepens

The face-off between the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Colonel Ibrahim Hameed Ali (rtd) and the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has worsen with Ali’s continuous promotion and sack of men and officers of the service without recourse to the ministry which is statutory the head of the NCS Board of Customs and Excise.

Apart from those he sacked for various reasons, the retired military officer who was a former military administrator of Kaduna State also approved the promotion of 1, 561 junior officers to various ranks without the authorisation of Adeosun.

Apparently not pleased with the development, Senate Committee on Customs and Excise recently invited Ali to the National Assembly to quiz him on the authority and power he was using to promote and sack customs officers without the express permission of the Minister of Finance who is the head of the supervising Ministry of the Customs.

The Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) which legalizes the operations and administration of NCS recognizes the Minister of Finance as the Chairman of the Board of the Customs.

The Act among other things recognises the Minister of Finance as the person who should authorize the sacking and promotion of officers and other key matters concerning the operations of NCS but the CG has been doing this with impunity.

Ali was said to have told the Senate that he derived the powers he has been exercising in NCS from the letter given to him personally by President Muhammadu Buhari when he was appointed nearly two years ago.

It was gathered that Ali accepted the job on the condition that he is allowed to run the NCS independently to enable him sanitize its operations.

THISDAY checks revealed that it was based on the acceptance of these conditions that Ali was given the three Rs mandate. That is reform, restructure and increase revenue.