By Steve Agbota
Clearing agents and Importers operating at the nation’s seaports have called on the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for automatic promotion for the acting Controller, Federal Operations Unit (FoU), Zone A, ag. Compt Yahaya Usman to full fledged controller and officers that intercepted explosives and Indian hemp smuggled into the country from Benin Republic.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen, the clearing agents said automatic promotion for the officers would serve as morale booster to others officers in the service.
They argued that the seizure is spectacular due to the current security threats and increased crime rates around the country expecially in the South-East and Northern part of the country.
Recall that a unit of the FoU, Zone A, last week intercepted 42 drums of calcium carbide and 2,843.6 kg of Indian Hemp smuggled into the country from Benin Republic.
The acting Customs Area Controller of the unit, Compt. Usman Yahaya who stated that the unit acted based on credible intelligence disclosed that the explosives were smuggled into the country through the porus Ogun State borders .
However, the President General, National Association of Air Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC), Prince Bakare Adeyinka, said the seizure had shown how porus the Nigerian border in Ogun State has been despite the presence of Customs officers as well as other security agencies.
According to him, the officers who intercepted the drums of explosives should be rewarded with automatic promotion, which he said would serve as morale booster for them to make more seizures.
He said: “The right thing to boost moral of officers that intercepted these drums of explosive is to compensate the officers who achieved this feat with automatic promotion. That is the way to make them do more because they could as well compromised and put the nation in a mess.”
He stated further that the promotion will enjoin others to do more as they will understand there is dignity in doing the right thing.
Also speaking, a member of the Association of Nigerian Liscenced Customs Agents (ANLCA), Chukwudi Daniels, argued that hardwork should be compensated by the service. Daniels said the current security situation in the country make it imperative for the Customs management to boost the morale of officers who achieved feat like this.