Reps to amend Customs Act for CGC’s four-year tenure
The House of Representatives is set to amend the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) 2023 to allow for the appointment of a Comptroller General of Customs for a four-year tenure, Chairman of the House Committee on Customs and Excise, Leke Abejide has said.
Abejide spoke at the headquarters of the Zone A, Federal Operations Unit of the Nigerian Customs Service.
He said the current act which provided for the appointment of a career officer to head the service does not allow for a four year tenure for the Comptroller General.
According to Abejide, the provision which was initially inserted in the current Act was removed by the Legal Department of the service on the premise that it will negate the provisions of the civil service rules.
He said: “We wanted to have a provision in the current Act to make for a four-year tenure for the CGC, but legal department removed it saying it will not work. But it is working in the police.
“If you appoint a CGC, he will need sometime to implement his programmes and ensure a reform of the system. But if he just spent one or two years and leave, maybe due to retirement, what impact can he make?
“So, we are going to work on amending the Act so we can return that provision to the law. We will work with the management of the service on this”.
Abejide also informed the officers of the command that work on the zonal headquarters of the is in progress and will be completed within the 18 months to provide them enough space to operate from.
He however clarified that the committee was not aiming to extend the tenure of the Comptroller General, but aiming to ensure that anybody appointed by the President to that position will serve for four years.
Comptroller, Federal Operations Unit, Kola Oladeji told the members that the unit, being an enforcement command arrested about 4000 bags of foreign rice worth about N294 million in one single operations, while foiling the attempted exportation ot 6160 and 4,410 pieces of donkey skin loaded in a 1×40 ft container with a street value of N6. 709 billion and N5.420 billion respectively.
The comptroller also disclosed thay in a carefully discreet operation, the command intercepted five automatic shirt gun, nine hundred and ninety three live cartridges from a mobile luxury bus with Lagos metropolis and has been handed over along with other siesed arms and amunitions to the National Agency for Control of Small Arms and Light weapon.
In addition, he said the command seized about 3643 kg of cannabis sativa ans Canadian loud at various points within the command worth N1. 720 billion which has been handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.