Promotion Scandal Rocks Nigeria Customs … Okonjo-Iweala Queries List

The list of promoted officers of the Nigeria Custom Service, NCS, is

currently causing disquiet in the organization.
Sources told Pointblanknews.com that several officers who were promoted

from the Northern extraction did not pass the promotional exams while

those who had passed and were expecting to be promoted were shocked to

discover they were left out of the promotional list.

The looming challenge is the recent promotions announced in “circular No.

002/2014: release of year 2014 promotion” signed by Deputy

Comptroller-General, I.M. Mera, on behalf of the Comptroller-General.

According to the circular, twenty-seven Deputy Comptrollers were promoted

to the rank of Comptrollers, fifty-four Assistant Comptrollers were

promoted to the rank of Deputy Comptrollers, and fifty-six Chief

Superintendents were promoted to Assistant Comptrollers, while

ninety-seven superintendents were promoted to the rank of Chief

Superintendents.
Also promoted were forty-two deputy superintendents to the rank of

superintendents, one hundred and eighteen assistant superintendents I to

the rank of deputy superintendents, and four hundred and six assistant

superintendents II to the rank of assistant superintendents I.

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, according to an insider was

said to have queried the first list of promoted officers from the rank of

Deputy Comptrollers to Comptrollers on the ground that it failed the

federal character test.
According to a source, no candidates promoted from at least five states

including Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Bayelsa States.

Dr.Okonjo-Iweala was also said to have argued that some of the deprived

states had candidates who had excelled in the promotional examination for

that cadre of personnel.
The Minister's query was said to have forced the Comptroller-General,

Alhaji D.I Abdullahi to remedy the deficiency in the list.

However, sources hinted that some officers at the head office of the

Nigeria Customs distorted the list as sent by the Comptroller-General.

According to the sources, “the distortion is most glaring in the list of

officers promoted from the rank of Chief Superintendents to Assistant

Comptrollers.”
The sources who would not want to be named said, “there were no candidates

promoted from at least five states including Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and

Bayelsa States. This is despite the fact that a total of 56 officers were

promoted from that rank, compared to 36 states of the federation. This is

also against the background of the fact that officers from at least two of

those states were said to have been in the top ten on the basis of

performance in the promotional examination.”
All the promoted officers were said to have sat for promotional

examinations at their various levels but in a curious turn of events some

of the officers who passed the examinations creditably were not promoted

while some who barely managed to pass were promoted.

The implication is that the officers not promoted, despite their high

scores in the promotional examinations, would automatically become junior

in rank to their erstwhile colleagues.
Sources say some unidentified officers in the Administrative Department of

NCS tampered with the final list because of the huge number of personnel,

as neither the Minister nor the Comptroller-General would be able to go

through the long list of names one by one.
Also, the list as was prepared, the state of origin of the officers being

promoted were not listed.