Photos: Newly Appointed Customs Boss Assumes Office

 Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd), the Newly appointed head of Customs who was appointed by President Buhari, August 27th yesterday assumed office at the customs Headquarters zone 3 Abuja.

A statement issued by the Public Relations Officer, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, yesterday noted that Ali spoke during his maiden meeting with the management of the service in Abuja.
The statement quoted him as telling the senior officers:
“The mandate he (Buhari) has given me are three basic things: go to Customs, reform Customs, restructure Customs and increase the revenue generation. Simple. I don’t think that is ambiguous, I don’t think that is cumbersome. It is precise and I believe that is what all of you are here to do”.
He urged the management to work with him to deliver on the mandate.
Ali pleaded with the top-level management staff not to see him as a stranger in the Customs family, noting that his mission is to strengthen the Service.
He, therefore, solicited the loyalty of all officers and men in his mission for a better service.

The Deputy Comptroller General covering duties for CGC, John Atte, while handing over, gave Col. Ali (retd.) a brief history of the Service and assured him of unquestionable loyalty of officers and men to work towards suppression of smuggling and increased revenue collection, facilitation among others, in the interest of the nation.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari in an interview with BBC Hausa on Tuesday defended his recent appointments criticized by many Nigerians as lopsided,in favour of  the Northern region as it became clear Mr. Buhari’s 30 nominations so far lacks regional and gender balance.

Asked by the BBC about the controversy, the president said, 

“This is the nature of Nigerian politics”.
“If they will do justice to me, as an elected Nigerian president, let them look at the Constitution a Nigerian president works with, there are people who will closely work with me that don’t need to be taken to the Senate,” he said of his critics, according to a translation of the BBC interview, by Daily Trust.
“If I select people whom I know quite well in my political party, whom we came all the way right from the APP, CPC and APC, and have remained together in good or bad situation, the people I have confidence in and I can trust them with any post, will that amount to anything wrong? I have been with them throughout our trying times, what then is the reward of such dedication and suffering?
“They did not defect because of positions, they did not involve themselves in the pursuit of personal gains, and they accepted their fate throughout our trying moments. What is wrong if I make you the secretary (of the federal government) because I have confidence that things will go normal?”

On the Chibok girls, who were abducted in April 2014 by Boko Haram,He said;
“They have scattered them, and are being guarded at dispersed locations. Most of the girls are Christians and were forced to embrace Islam. And the sect’s cruel leaders have married some of the girls, obviously against their wish. Others have been left to practice their religion but their condition could hardly be ascertained.
“Both ground and air security personnel in the Sambisa forest could spot where the girls are, but since the insurgents have also kidnapped housewives and other women, no one could say whether they mixed them or how they dispersed them,” the president said.

 More photos as the New custom head resumed work yesterday.