Vice President Kashim Shettima, on Monday, decorated the acting Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
While expressing hope that Adeniyi will bring professionalism to the service, the VP urged other personnel to aspire to the zenith of their profession.
Adeniyi’s decoration comes one week after he was named the acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service by President Bola Tinubu on Monday, June 19, alongside other new security helmsmen.
Describing the appointment as a morale booster for officers in the service, the Vice President said, “Congratulations for bringing professionalism back to the Nigerian Customs Service. Now, every Customs officer can aspire to occupy the pinnacle of his or her profession.
“I wish you well, on behalf of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Congratulations, once again.”
Speaking to journalists shortly after the decoration ceremony, Adeniyi expressed gratitude to the President for appointing a serving officer as the head of the agency, assuring him and Nigerians of a more effective and innovation-driven Customs service.
He said in the last eight years, the Nigeria Customs Service had gone through a period of transition.
“In some areas, we recorded progress;- we made remarkable progress in e-Customs; we made a lot of breakthroughs in capacity building.
“But the Customs service can still live up to its full potentials when we bring in more innovation to drive Customs operations.
“These are the kind of things we are looking at in the years ahead,” Adeniyi explained.
He said, on his watch, the Customs service would be professional in its approach and would collaborate with key stakeholders to maintain high standards of operations.
“It is a very onerous task but we are going to be working alongside other stakeholders and partners that we have identified.
“We intend to come up with innovations that will carry along all partners and stakeholders.
“We are going to leverage technology and innovation to break new grounds in Customs operations,” said Adeniyi.
The VP performed the decoration alongside the wife of the new Customs CG, Mrs Kikelomo Adeniyi.
The Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, was also present.
