The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Hameed Ali, has commended officers of the Federal Operations Unit (F.O.U.) Zone ‘A’ Ikeja, for maintaining discipline, hard work and seizures.
This is contained in a statement made available by the Public Relations Officer of the unit, Uche Ejesieme.
According to the statement, the Area Controller of the unit, Sani Madugu, relayed the commendation to his officers, team leaders, units and sectional heads of the zone during his inaugural parade.
Madugu said in the statement that the Comptroller-General of Customs (C-G) acknowledged the giant strides of the unit in terms of quality seizures.
“Beyond its operational readiness to frontally confront smugglers, the unit is reputed as critical to the general performance of the service.
“This is in view of the impact of its aggressive patrol activities, which have naturally enhanced the revenue generating capacity of commands in the Zone,” the statement quoted the controller.
Madugu in the statement said that C-G had also sent a letter of commendation to Jude Ohagwu , a deputy superintendent of Customs.
Ohagwu is the team leader, controller’s special team in charge of Seme Axis.
It said the C-G’s commendation to Ohagwu was a demonstration of the desire of the management to reward hard work so that officers and men of the service would be spurred for greater efficiency.
The letter personally signed by the C-G explained that the award was based on the result of uncommon dedication and commitment which resulted in remarkable seizures, it said.
The controller in the statement said a team led by the recipient of the C-G’s commendation, had on Thursday, November 19, intercepted 679 bags of rice; 20 cartons of Delta soap; eight cartons of insecticides; and 40 kegs of vegetable oil.
It said the team also intercepted 39 cartons of vegetable oil with a Duty Paid Value of N5.05 million in one operation.
It said the team trailed the consignments from Itegbe Waterside to Iyana Era, where the consignments were offloaded into a warehouse.
The controller in the statement urged his officers to re-double their efforts in order to drive the campaign against smuggling to a logical conclusion.
The unit would continue to maintain its leading role in anti-smuggling and sustain the present onslaught against smugglers, it said.
The statement also quoted the controller as warning smugglers to stop their nefarious acts.
It said that he would deal with smugglers who might want to test the strength of the unit.
By Pita Ochai