A serving Military officer in the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Mohammed Buhari has been redeployed from his post as the Principal Staff Officer ( PSO) to the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).
Buhari’s deployment followed criticisms in complexities in running the NSC.as stakeholders alleged he had been the mastermind of numerous Custom units and alerts that have become an additional burden on freight agents and shippers in the nation’s ports.
Recently, the Senate Committee on NCS had queried the Nigerian Army and Hameed Ali, Comptroller General of NCS ,on the use of a serving officer, Brigadier General Buhari as his PSO.
Senator Francis Fadahunsi, lawmaker representing Osun East who doubles as Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, described the scenario as anomaly that has been taken too far.
Fadahunsi in his submission said” General Buhari has been working with Ali as PSO for the past four and half years, This is to the detriment of professional Customs officers.This same army general is alleged to have taken over the function of the posting commitee,as he now handles exclusively the posting of Comptrollers and Deputy Comptrollers
” Mr President must disabuse the minds of Nigerians who now see the Customs as an annex of the Nigerian Army.The Senate commitee chairman is a retired Army Major, the Comptroller General is a retired Colonel and a serving General is the Principal Staff Officer” he said
Although no official announcement has been made in the direction of Brigadier General Buhari’s successor as PSO, it was gathered that the Deputy Comptroller General,Sanusi Umar, who is retiring this month has been tipped for the job.
Umar who was in charge of the Human Resources Development at the NCS, was said to have been briefed and would assume his new office on retirement.
