The acting Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi has pledged to review Nigeria Customs Service service’s recruitment policies, to ensure that more people from the border communities are recruited into the service.
A statement by the National Public Relations Officer of the service, Abdullahi Maiwada, noted that Adeniyi made the promise when he visited some traditional rulers in some border communities last week.
The Customs CG has pledged to improve customs community relations in border areas to facilitate the discharge of its mandates.
According to him, border communities are vital to security agencies in the discharge of their duties as regards national security.
“One fair commitment will like to give to you is that we will do better in recruitment with people in border communities in the NCS because we believe that they are stakeholders, and customs community relationship is stronger when you know that you have your sons and daughters in the NCS.
“We are also not unmindful of the fact that where we have this kind of critical operations, we should also be talking about the kind of corporate social responsibility programmes that we are going to be doing in places like this,” he said.
He also solicited the support of border communities and their leaders, adding as it is paramount to the success of the service operations.
He said, “Members of this community, like all other border communities in Nigeria, have a significant role in helping our security agencies in the discharge of their role as regards national security. Idiroko is very strategic to our operations; all borders around Idiroko represent a strategic gateway to not just trade and economic development of Nigeria but also for national security management.”
The community leaders, who appreciated the Adeniyi for his visit, raised concerns about issues affecting their livelihood.
Responding, the Customs boss charged them to channel their reactions appropriately to the government as the new administration would grant a listening ear.
“I will request you, as a community, to continue to support the government. We have a new administration that has shown that it will listen to people, a new administration that has demonstrated that when policies are not working, it is ready to review them.
“Because of that commitment, I want to charge members of this community to channel your reactions appropriately to government, and as a responsible government, I believe that they will listen to you and make amendments where necessary,” he noted.
