SENATE DECLARES CUSTOMS BOSS UNFIT, CALLS FOR HIS RESIGNATION

Following his refusal to appear before the senate, the Upper Legislative Chambers, on Wednesday demanded that the Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Services, NCS, Col. Hameed Ali(rtd) must resign his appointment, stressing that he was unfit for his position.

Recall that the Senate had last Thursday ordered Ali to appear before it today after Senators worked out on him during plenary over his refusal to appear before them in uniform last week.

A closed-door session had earlier been held  on a letter from the Attorney General of the Federation, (AGF), Abubakar Malami that the Chamber should  stay action on the invitation of the   to appear in uniform.

The appearance of the Comptroller General was listed in the order paper of the Senate as the fourth business of the day  despite the AGF’s letter to suspend his invitation following a court summon.

The item on the Order Paper was captioned “Briefing by the Comptroller-General of the Customs and Excise’’ and slated to be moved by the Leader of the Senate, Sen. Ahmed Lawan.

Ali was asked to appear before the Senate today (Wednesday) in uniform following his appearance in mufti last Thursday.

The Customs CG on Tuesday disclosed that he would not honour the Senate’s invitation following a suit filed over the matter.

Somebody has sued us. It is subjunctive. I have got my writ of summons and they said status quo ante should remain, which means nothing should move until the court makes a pronouncement,” he said. The plantiff is Mohammed Ibrahim, a lawyer.

The senate had on Thursday asked Ali to appear before it at 10 a.m. on Wednesday in Customs uniform to explain the rationale for directing that vehicle owners should be pay duty on their cars.

Prompted by Ali’s seeming disrespect by refusing to appear before the senate as directed, senators at exactly 10.32 a.m. went into a closed-door session apparently to assess the situation and make a resolution.

The senate had first invited Ali to appear before it on March 8  to brief it on the proposed policy for payment of Customs Duty by vehicles owners, no matter the age of the vehicle.

However, Ali did not honour the invitation on the ground that he had a management meeting.