Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali, retd, was walked out by the Senate for not wearing complete uniform as instructed by the Senate, yesterday. He was asked to return next Wednesday in complete Customs uniform.
Senators asked Ali to leave the plenary because rather than wear Customs uniform, he appeared in a white kaftan dress with white cap and black shoes to match. According to them, Ali is not a sole administrator; as Customs CG, he has to be dressed as such to appear before them because anybody can wear a mufti and claim to be the NCS boss.
The lawmakers disagreed with Ali that no law compels him to wear the Customs uniform as one of them recalled that Ali was one of those who got the current uniform introduced in 2004.
Ali’s thorny visit to the Senate occurred as the NCS’ N8.5 billion virement request to complete its headquarters sufered a setback in the House of Representatives with the legislators querying the variation of consultancy fee from N206 million to one billion naira.
Ali, who arrived the Senate at about 9.30am was ushered into the Senate chambers at 12.05 pm and was promptly asked by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the sitting, why he was not in uniform. It took the senators some 40 minutes to deliberate on Ali’s matter before he was sent out of the chamber for what the lawmakers termed ‘’improper dressing.’’
The Customs boss who came with Customs officers who all wore uniform, was asked to leave the chamber at12.40 pm.
The lawmakers had insisted on Wednesday that Ali must appear before them, yesterday, unfailingly after he had submitted a letter to the office of Senate President Bukola Saraki to explain his inability to appear at the Wednesday’s plenary.
After introducing himself to the lawmakers, the Customs boss, who noted that he has no knowledge of any law compelling him to wear the agency’s uniform, said that his letter of appointment did not ask him to wear uniform.
The senators, however, took a swipe at him, citing sections of the Customs and Excise Act to affirm the need for him to wear uniform.
Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, who provided a detailed background to Ali’s invitation, said that the Act setting up the Customs Service provide that the Comptroller-General should wear uniform, even as he said that the motion leading to Ali’s invitation was moved by him, upon sighting the circular on old vehicles issued by the Customs.
Senator Na’Allah said that the issue would have been resolved peacefully but for the manner the CG reacted and claimed that he was not employed to wear uniform.
Making reference to Section 7 (2) and Section 8 of the Customs and Excise Act, he insisted that the law requires the CG to wear uniform.
His words: “I crave your indulgence to try and put a recital with what I can best refer to as unnecessary. You will recall that I raised a motion on the floor of the Senate based on a circular issued or allegedly issued by the Comptroller General. The requirement was simple: you issued a circular in which we have a lot of calls from constituents entertaining anxiety as to what will happen to them. What we wanted, clearly, was in keeping with the terms and tradition of our democratic governance.
“We require that you come before the committee of the Senate to say this is how the circular is and this is how we intended to implement it. This would have given us the opportunity to allay the fears of our constituents.
“Unfortunately, it was alleged that in reaction to that resolution, you allegedly made certain comments that appear to be derogatory to the institution of the Senate by saying the Senate has no business whether you wear the uniform or not. Now, the Senate is not privileged to see your letter of appointment but what is important is that you issued that circular in your capacity as the Comptroller General and at all material time you have answered and acted the office of the CG.
“Today, you are in this chamber because the Senate summoned the comptroller general of Customs and let me refer you to Section 7 (2) of the Customs and Excise Act. It reads: ‘Any proceeding for an offence under this law will be taken in the name of Comptroller General.’ The intendment of this is that it has given you legal power in your capacity as comptroller general. Then Section 8 of the same law says: ‘For the purpose of carrying out or enforcing the provisions of the customs and Excise law, all officers shall have the same powers, authorities, privileges as given by law to police officers…” I want you to read the recital.
“And under Section 10, it says: ‘Unlawful assumptions and character of an officer.’ Don’t forget it is referring to Comptroller General of Customs to which at all material time you have answered. It says ‘If for the purpose of telling admission to any building or either place or any ship or aircraft or vehicle or of procuring to be done of his own authority or for any other unlawful purpose. Any person not being an officer assumes the name, designation or character of an officer he fails in addition to any other punishment to which he may have being rendered himself liable to a fine of N1000.’
“The combined effect of this, the power to prosecute is entirely that of the executive and in this democracy it belongs to the President. But the constitution which we have made and enacted and given to us says the attorney general of the federation has that power but went ahead to say certain officers which include Comptroller General has that power and it is statutory power. It means your appointment is statutory.”
In his contribution, Senator Solomon Adeola, APC, Lagos West, said: “To start with, this Senate, the highest lawmaking body of the Federal Republic of Nigeria issued a resolution and the content of the resolution is crystal clear and which states that the Comptroller General of Customs appear before it in uniform. The resolution still stands and what is happening here today is contrary to the resolution passed by the 109 senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“I believe it is only right and proper for the CG of customs to comply with that resolution and as you can see here this afternoon other persons that followed the CG of customs into this chamber are fully dressed in their attire as members of the NCS and I want to say this anybody can dress in mufti and call himself CG.
“The Comptroller General is a rank and if the rank is not here I don’t know who is before us, and yes they have identified the CG but the question still remains that the CG still needs to appear before us in full comptroller general of customs uniform. His car carry a signal of the rank of Comptroller General, the official aircraft of the customs carry an insignia of the NCS and I believe we should just stick by the resolution of the Senate and ask the CG to comply with that resolution.”
