Customs

Reforming Customs’ FOU for efficient operations

In March 17th, 2021, one Mr Adeyemi Quadri, a freight forwarder, was shot and wounded by roving operative of the Lagos Federal Operations Unit( FOU) ,Zone A of the Nigeria Customs service.

The incident , which happened at the FOU check point at auto- wharf -Mile 2 road, sparked an uproar among the freight Forwarders confraternity.

Both the Customs and the freight forwarding group engaged in a face- off with each side, each side trying to justify the propriety of its action and position.

Luckily, the victim survived the scare but with a scar.

Such incident has been the hallmark of the operatives of the FOU who killed and maimed innocent citizens in the course of discharging their duties across the country.

In as much as we acknowledge the statutory roles of the units to stalk and maul down dare-devil smugglers, if such need arises, we however frown at the propensity of the operatives of these units to turn their guns on citizens who could be duty evaders or innocently got caught up in a cross fire with the vicious smugglers.

In February 17th, 2019, Nigerians were outraged by the footage of a video that went viral in which the operatives of the FOU killed an innocent Nigerian under the guise of carrying out their duties.

The incident, which happened at the Sagamu interchange along Ibadan-Lagos expressway, led to the curious shooting of one Godwin Agada, who was ironically working with the patrol team as a ‘water-fetcher’.

On January 21st, 2019, five innocent Nigerians among who was one Jamiu Bello, a fresh graduate of Tai Solarin University of Education, were felled at Yewa Community at Owode-Yewa in Yewa South LGA of Ogun State when they raided a house suspected to be harbouring contraband goods.

On November 2018, the Nigeria Police arrested seven Customs officers for shooting indiscriminately and killing one Mrs Patience Oni near Badagry roundabout.

On March 2017, one Taofiq, a cab driver, was killed at Kobape town, Abeokuta Ogun State for allegedly carrying three bags of rice suspected to have been smuggled.

On January 2017, one Bukola Olugunna, a pregnant woman , was shot and fatally wounded by Customs operatives on the trails of suspected smugglers at Iyana-Iyesi in Ado-Odo/Ota LGA in Ogun state.

In 2013, an FOU officer allegedly shot and killed one Chief Anayo Chinedu, the Vice-chairman of Idiroko border chapter of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) under a curious circumstance.

The list is endless and inexhaustible.

These endless but senseless killings got so bad that Dapo Abiodun, the Governor of Ogun state, recently had to appeal to the Customs authority to find solution to the scourge as several innocent people of his border state have been killed by the FOU operatives for which his government had to several times intervene to douse the public anger and uprisings that normally arose from such unfortunate incidents.

This has been a regular pattern of the brutality of the FOU operatives on innocent citizens.

The Mile 2 road incident was one of the several cases of irrational shootings of the FOU operatives across the country.

To say the least, we are no less troubled by these unfortunate but avoidable incidents which we condemn in strongest terms possible.

The Federal Operations Unit of the Nigeria Customs is the anti-Smuggling arm of the service created to carry out one of the statutory duties of the Customs, which is to suppress smuggling.There are four such units headquartered in the four Zonal structures of the Customs.

They are FOU Zone A, Lagos for the South-West, FOU Zone B at Kaduna, FOU Zone C at Owerri and FOU Zone D at Bauchi.

The most actively notorious and deadly among them is the FOU Zone A Lagos.

So their creation and duties are statutory and legal.

However, the officers of these special units have killed and maimed many innocent Nigerians in the course of stalking and tracking smugglers and their contraband goods.

This platform is worried that the special unit of the Customs created for a noble and worthy cause is gradually turning into a notorious gang.

The anti-smuggling officers, who are supposed to be heroes for their daring and heroic efforts to combat the scorching menace of smuggling, are sadly turning into villains due to the over-zealousness and needless killings of innocent Nigerians.

Rather than gain the sympathy and support of people for these officers in their dangerous task of confronting the dare-devil smugglers who sometimes kill and maim them, the senseless killings and maiming by some of the operatives have now attracted public anger and opprobrium to the efforts of the units.

We sympathise with the Customs for being caught between carrying out its statutory duty and courting and maintaining the support and cooperation of the people which is crucial to the success of its task.

We feel the pains of the Customs which has lost its officers and men to this fight against the vicious smugglers and also losing the needed support of the people due to the misconduct of few trigger-happy officers.

We believe however that the Customs could still salvage its image to earn the sympathy, empathy and support of the people in the course of carrying out its anti-smuggling duty.

The first step to achieving this, we believe, is to embark on complete and comprehensive overhaul of the entire anti-smuggling units of the Customs.

For us, something is fundamentally wrong with the orientation of the officers in the units.

There is an urgent need to re-orientate these officers who are supposed to be specially trained to carry and use firearms.

The Customs authority should ensure that apart from training and retraining them on the use of firearms, their state of minds should be under constant scrutiny and ascertained to be stable at all time.

It is an officer with unstable mind who will shoot indiscriminately among unarmed innocent people under the illusion of wanting to arrest a smuggler and his contraband goods.

Arming an officer with gun who lacks prerequisite knowledge of arms -handling and the one with unstable mind is a recipe for disaster.

We find it unwise therefore for the authority to allow a preventable disaster to happen before it takes a fire brigade measure to mitigate the disaster.

Prevention, they say, is better and cheaper than cure.

We also notice with alarm some of the operational procedures of the anti-smuggling unit which we consider archaic, barbaric, outdated and pre-historic.

We could not situate the relevance, efficiency and efficacy of chasing smugglers all over the cities and markets, shooting indiscriminately within the context of modern technology-driven espionage and surveillance system.

What is the Customs doing with its helicopter which we believe could be deployed for aerial surveillance patrol of our vast but porous borders?

Can’t the Customs authority use drone technology of border surveillance?

The logic of the oft-repeated and worn-out argument that the service lacks the required manpower to man our vast borders takes flight in the face of the use of modern surveillance technology.

How do other countries, especially those member nations which are affiliated to the World Customs Organisation (WCO) of which Nigeria is a member, carry out their anti-smuggling operations with minimum fatality?

Under technical partnership, Nigeria Customs through collaboration with other member states of WCO could learn to fight smuggling with minimum casualties.

In addition, Customs could use credible intelligence to stalk, trace and track contraband goods or goods whose owners evaded duties to their destinations, seal and cordon off the place before evacuation.

This is a reasonable alternative to the “Shina Rambo” style of operations of these units whenever their operatives are on the trail of smuggled goods or goods whose owners committed infractions in the clearance procedures, which often leave avoidable heavy casualties.

Apart from the overhaul of the operational procedures of the anti-smuggling unit, the Customs Authority should deal with the corruption within the service generally.

We often wonder, as most Nigerians do, that how do some of these contraband goods escape from the heavy presence of officers at the regular ports and the border posts?

What has become the directive of the CGC Hameed Ali in 2017 that banned indiscriminate mounting of check points by the FOU operatives on the roads.

In the said circular, Ali ordered the dismantling of all checkpoints mounted outside 40km of Nigeria’s borders.

He also ordered the dismantling of checkpoints in Port areas with immediate effect.

He described such check points as illegal.

But such checkpoints are not only still in existence to the defilement of the CGC directive, but are multiplying in numbers.

It was at these illegal check points that such indiscriminate shooting incidents take place.

The one that happened on March 17th, 2021 took place close to the PTML RORO port.

We believe the flagrant disregard for CGC directive was fueled by corruptive tendencies of the operatives.

It is alleged that the illicit practice of smuggling is being aided and abetted by the officers at the border posts who have been heavily compromised by smugglers.

This explains why these smugglers become furious, vicious and deadly when accosted by the anti-smuggling officers which normally results to fatality.

Until this virus is flushed out or minimised among officers, there will continue to be fatal clashes between anti-smuggling officers and smugglers who may feel they have paid their way and will put up bloody resistance.

We are also worried that the Customs authority may have under-estimated the enormous challenges some of these government policies may pose for its anti-smuggling operations.

The policy on the ban of rice through the land borders, the high tariff slammed on the item at the ports and the much-criticised Auto policy have all combined to make smuggling an attractive option which naturally leads to high incidence of the illicit practice.

One would have thought that the Customs would modernise its anti-smuggling machine to cope with the level of sophistication in the smuggling activities.

We are therefore alarmed that the Customs Service is still resorting to the old, archaic and outdated method of invasion of market places looking for contraband goods, chasing smugglers round the country like a cat chasing a mouse and mounting road blocks where innocent people are harassed, killed and maimed.

We strongly advise the Customs authority to upgrade its operational tactics and procedures in fighting smuggling that will lead to minimum fatality.

We also call on the federal government to empower the Customs authority to ensure that its antiquated and anti-people operational procedures in anti-smuggling operations are modernised and technology-driven.

We believe that if these changes are effected in the anti-smuggling operations of the Nigeria Customs Service, the agency will achieve far more successes than it currently recorded while it will also gain the empathy, support and cooperation of Nigerians who would agree to be allies in the fight against the dare-devil smugglers.

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Customs

Customs PR officers dominate NCCSC graduation, clinch overall best honours

Gloria Odion, Maritime reporter

The Public Relations Unit of the Nigeria Customs Service has recorded a rare academic feat as two of its officers emerged the top graduating students at the Nigeria Customs Service Command and Staff College (NCCSC), Gwagwalada.

At the graduation ceremony for Senior Course 14 held on Friday,June 26th, 2026, Chief Superintendent of Customs (CSC) Ridwan Yusuf was named the Overall Best Graduating Student, capping an outstanding performance by winning three additional awards.

His colleague, CSC Nuruddeen Sa’idu, was named the Second Best Graduating Student, completing a remarkable sweep by officers from the Service’s Public Relations Unit.

The double honour highlights the intellectual depth, leadership capacity and professionalism within the Customs Public Relations Unit, demonstrating that its officers excel not only in strategic communication but also in administration, operational management and policy leadership.

Beyond the accolades, the achievement is expected to open another chapter in their careers, as both officers may be retained by the College as Directing Staff, in keeping with the institution’s tradition of engaging its highest-performing graduates to mentor future participants.

If confirmed, the appointments would recognise their exceptional academic and professional abilities while entrusting them with the responsibility of shaping the next generation of Customs leaders, although their absence would be keenly felt within the Public Relations Unit.

The Nigeria Customs Service Public Relations Unit congratulated both officers on their outstanding accomplishments and wished them continued success as they assume greater responsibilities in service to the nation.

Customs

Retirement gale sweeps through Customs as Olomu,Bomodi,Oladeji,Adeola,Adebakin, Niagwan among 1,516 officers set to exit service

Funso OLOJO, Editor

A massive retirement wave is set to rip through the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), with no fewer than 1,516 officers — including several top-ranking officers — pencilled down to leave the Service in 2026 and 2027 in what appears to be one of the largest personnel exits in the agency’s recent history.

The impending retirement storm, which cuts across virtually all cadres of the Service, will see officers from the rank of Deputy Comptroller-General down to Customs Assistant II bow out under statutory retirement provisions, leaving a major vacuum in the upper and middle ranks of the paramilitary agency.

Documents obtained by TheEyewitnessnews show that 825 officers are scheduled to retire in 2026, while another 691 are expected to leave in 2027, bringing the total number of exits within the two-year period to 1,516.

The retirement notices are contained in two restricted circulars issued by the Human Resources and Development Department of the Service and signed by the Comptroller, Establishment, A.A. Bazuaye, on behalf of the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Human Resources and Development.
The first circular, No. HRD/2025/048 dated September 19, 2025, contains what the Service described as the final list of 825 officers billed to retire in 2026.

A breakdown of the 2026 list shows that the Deputy Superintendent of Customs cadre accounts for the highest number of exits with 285 officers, followed by the Superintendent of Customs cadre with 226 officers.

Other cadres affected in the 2026 retirement exercise are Assistant Superintendent of Customs I with 64 officers; Chief Customs Officer, 53; Deputy Customs Officer, 51; Assistant Customs Officer, 46; Chief Superintendent of Customs, 61; Inspector of Customs, eight; Assistant Superintendent of Customs II, 10; Customs Assistant I, one; Customs Assistant II, two; Assistant Comptroller-General, 13; and Deputy Comptroller-General, five.

A second circular, No. HRD/2026/020 dated May 26, 2026, forwarded a draft list of 691 officers due for statutory retirement in 2027.

The 2027 retirement schedule shows that the Superintendent of Customs cadre will record the highest number of exits with 200 officers, followed by the Deputy Superintendent of Customs cadre with 193 officers.

Others on the 2027 list are Deputy Customs Officer, 81; Chief Superintendent of Customs, 68; Assistant Customs Officer, 57; Assistant Superintendent of Customs I, 39; Chief Customs Officer, 38; Assistant Superintendent of Customs II, four; Customs Assistant I, four; Customs Assistant II, four; Inspector of Customs, two; and Assistant Comptroller-General, four.

Both circulars directed all affected officers to proceed on mandatory pre-retirement leave in line with Public Service Rule 100238 and Federal Government Circular No. 63216/S.1/X/T; CR 1/2001/5 of March 20, 2001.

The directive stated that all officers due for retirement must disengage from active service and proceed on three months’ pre-retirement leave ahead of their effective retirement dates, while also forwarding their three-month pre-retirement notices to the Comptroller-General of Customs.

Among the senior officers affected in the 2026 retirement exercise are Deputy Comptrollers-General Omale (SVC No. 41148), who retired on June 7, 2026; Nnadi (SVC No. 43193), whose retirement took effect on March 3, 2026; Chiroma (SVC No. 42988), who is due to retire on September 23, 2026; and Adeola MRS (SVC No. 42972) and Niagwan (SVC No. 41524), both scheduled to retire on December 23, 2026.

Among the Assistant Comptrollers-General on the 2026 retirement list are Egwuh (SVC No. 38991), who retired on March 14, 2026; Umoh (SVC No. 41351), who exited the Service on February 2, 2026; Mohammed (SVC Nos. 41394 and 41395), both due to retire on June 24, 2026; and Abe (SVC No. 41110), whose retirement date is August 21, 2026.

Others listed for retirement include Olomu (SVC No. 41145), Olaniyan (SVC No. 41197), Yusuf (SVC No. 41257), Oladeji (SVC No. 41308) and Gaji (SVC No. 41328), all scheduled to retire on September 24, 2026.
Also on the list are Adebakin (SVC No. 41670) and Bomodi (SVC No. 42758), both due for retirement on September 23, 2026, as well as Nyam (SVC No. 40428) and Abubakar (SVC No. 40139), whose retirement dates are October 1, 2026, among others.

In the 2027 circular, the Service opened a window for complaints and corrections, directing that any observed error, omission or legitimate complaint arising from the attached retirement list should be forwarded to the office of the Deputy Comptroller-General, Human Resources and Development, on or before July 31, 2026.

To ensure the notices get to all affected officers, Zonal Coordinators, Area Controllers and Unit Heads were directed to circulate the retirement lists across commands and formations.

But beyond the raw figures, the sweeping retirement exercise has exposed a deeper structural imbalance in the Service.

Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise, Abejide Leke Joseph, traced the development to a prolonged recruitment gap and years of promotion stagnation in the Nigeria Customs Service.

According to him, a 16-year period of non-recruitment created an unusual personnel bulge, as officers within the 41000, 42000 and 43000 service number brackets rose through the ranks almost at the same pace and now find themselves hitting retirement age or service limits within the same window.

The result, he explained, is a top-heavy structure in which a large number of officers now occupy similar seniority levels and are due to leave almost simultaneously.
Abejide said the retirement of more than 1,500 officers should not be misconstrued as part of any succession plot within the Customs hierarchy, insisting that the exercise is a routine and legally mandated process under Public Service Rule 100238.

The development is coming against the backdrop of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s approval of a final six-month tenure extension for the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, effectively keeping him in office until February 2027.
The Presidency announced on Friday that Adeniyi’s tenure, earlier scheduled to expire on August 1, 2026, had been extended by another six months to enable him complete key reforms in the Service.

In a statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency said the extension would allow the Customs boss to consolidate the implementation of the National Single Window project and also ensure an orderly succession process in the Service.

More significantly, the statement made it clear that Adeniyi would work with the Nigeria Customs Service Board during the transition period to oversee critical personnel decisions, including the promotion of eligible officers to the rank of Comptroller and the compulsory retirement of officers who have attained 60 years of age or put in 35 years in service.

That presidential directive effectively places Adeniyi at the centre of one of the most consequential personnel transitions in the recent history of the Nigeria Customs Service — a transition that will shape not only the next generation of Customs leadership, but also the internal balance of power within the Service.

Customs

Excitement as President Tinubu Extends CGC Adeniyi’s Tenure by Six Months

Funso OLOJO, Editor

A wave of excitement swept through the maritime industry following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s approval of a six-month extension of the tenure of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Adewale Adeniyi.

In a statement issued on June 19th, 2026, and signed by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, President Tinubu said the extension was necessary to enable Adeniyi to consolidate ongoing reforms, particularly the implementation of the National Single Window project, while also ensuring an orderly succession process within the service.

According to the Presidency, Adeniyi’s current tenure was due to expire on August 1st, 2026.

The six-month extension will now keep him in office until February 2027.

During the transition period, Adeniyi is expected to work closely with the Nigeria Customs Service Board to oversee the promotion of qualified officers to the rank of Comptroller of Customs and facilitate the compulsory retirement of officers who have attained the statutory retirement age of 60 years or completed 35 years in service.

Adeniyi joined the Nigeria Customs Service after graduating from Obafemi Awolowo University in the late 1980s.

He steadily rose through the ranks, becoming a Deputy Comptroller in 2012, Comptroller in 2017, Assistant Comptroller-General in 2020, and Acting Deputy Comptroller-General in January 2023 before being appointed Comptroller-General by President Tinubu in June 2023.

Maritime stakeholders who welcomed the development described the extension as an opportunity for the Customs boss to complete the far-reaching reforms he initiated within the service.

One freight forwarder, who preferred anonymity, described the decision as a positive development.

“This is a welcome development because it will enable the Comptroller-General to complete the reforms he has started in the Nigeria Customs Service,” he said.

“His tenure has been a watershed in the history of the NCS.

“The service has witnessed unprecedented transformation in its operations, revenue generation, trade facilitation, and anti-smuggling activities.

“Granting him an extension is a well-thought-out administrative decision by President Tinubu to allow him to complete these achievements.”

Another stakeholder said the extension reflects the confidence of the Presidency in Adeniyi’s leadership.

“The tenure extension is a clear endorsement of Adeniyi’s transformative leadership of the Nigeria Customs Service and the progress recorded under his administration,” the stakeholder remarked.

Industry observers believe the extension will provide continuity for ongoing modernization initiatives and help sustain the momentum of reforms aimed at enhancing trade facilitation, revenue collection, and border security.