A Nigerian Customs officer has shared the testimony of a strange N600,000 alert he received after his transfer letter in late 2017.
According to a Facebook post by Lauretta Onochie, an aide to president Muhammadu Buhari, the unidentified officer traced the payment to customs payroll to report that he had received the said amount but was shocked when he received a response that the amount covered his transfer entitlements to cushion the effect of his relocation to a new station.
The officer who hailed the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd.) came to the conclusion “that certain unscrupulous Custom Officers at the top, have been collecting the entitlement of Customs Officers on transfer, over the years.
See the post:
The testimony of a Customs officer
“I am a Custom Officer and have been for many years. Over the years, as with other Custom Officers and as it’s customary in our Agency, I have been transferred from one unit to another and from one State to another. (sic)
When transfers happen, you just picked your bag and relocate to the new posting.
But recently, late 2017, I was transferred. And then I got an alert for over ₦600,000.00 (six hundred thousand). As I wasn’t expecting any inheritance from anywhere nor a windfall, I traced the payment to Customs Payroll. I reported that I had received the said amount paid into my account in error.
I almost fainted at the response. I was told that the amount covered my transfer entitlements to cushion the effect of my relocation to a new station. I asked if it was a new rule and was told it has always existed.” – A Serving Custom Officer
What this means is that certain unscrupulous Custom Officers at the top, have been collecting the entitlement of Custom Officers on transfer, over the years. But that has changed under the incorruptible, non-uniform wearing Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd.)”
