strangely, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Dikko Inde Abdullahi, resigned abruptly after months of speculations.
The Customs boss threw in the towel to silence those making several allegations against his six-year tenure in office.
Dikko sent a Notification for Retirement dated August 3, 2015 to President Muhammadu Buhari. The president accepted the resignation on August 14.
A source close to Abdullahi said he opted to retire at this point because he felt that if he were to try to remain in service until he is 60, which is 6 years from now, his staff development programme will be jeopardized because many trained and experienced officers will retire.
He reasoned that many current Controllers, ACGs and DCGs will retire by then, hence he decided to retire in order to give them a chance to grow.
In recent times, there were several attacks on the Customs boss by some groups because of his closeness with the former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
Recently too, the Nigeria Customs Transparency Initiative (NCTI) a pressure group, dragged Dikko before the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) urging it to probe   him over allegations of abuse of office.
Buhari accepts resignation…
President Muhammadu Buhari has accepted the resignation of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Dikko Abdullahi Inde. It was gathered yesterday that Buhari on Friday approved Abdullahi’s request to proceed on voluntary retirement from today in a letter he wrote to the president on August 3.
The president, in the approval letter he signed personally, thanked Abdullahi for his service to the nation within the last six years.
The President’s letter, titled “Voluntary retirement from the Nigeria Customs Service” and dated August 14, read: “Dear, Alhaji D.I. Abdullahi. I write to acknowledge the receipt of your letter Ref. No. NCS/ADM/HQ/P. 35802 of 3rd August, 2015 conveying your decision to voluntarily retire from the Nigeria Customs Service with effect from Tuesday, 18th August, 2015.
I’m not afraid of probe – Abdullahi
The outgoing CG has said that he is not afraid of the Federal Government’s ongoing investigation into alleged non-remittance of revenues by all the relevant agencies in the country.
The NCS boss said this in an interview with State House journalists yesterday after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Nigeria Customs Service is among the agencies being probed by the government over the allegations of Excess Crude Account differentials and non-remittance of revenues into the federation account.
A committee raised by the National Economic Council (NEC) had last Thursday hired KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers to carry out a forensic audit of all the revenue-generating agencies.
But the outgoing Comptroller-General told journalists yesterday that he had nothing to fear about the investigation.
He said he was leaving at the time he felt the young ones that developed the software of the NCS could come up and manage the software.
Abdullahi said the revenue generated by the NCS appreciated by 20 percent from when he took over as Comptroller-General.
Despite the high-wire politics surrounding that seat, his record of performance, especially on revenue generation, has endeared the man to the President, a source said last night.
Besides taking the revenue of Customs from a monthly average of N30 billion to about N100 billion, Abdullahi is also credited for modernizing the Customs service through far-reaching reforms he introduced in his six-point agenda upon assumption of office.
At the Abuja headquarters of the Customs, officers were seen yesterday discussing his departure in hushed tones even as some agreed that their boss is leaving with an impeccable record. “I think the man has decided to bow out when the ovation is still very loud,” a lady Assistant Comptroller-General was overheard discussing with two other officers.
The race for new CG begins …
The race to succeed Dikko-Inde Abdullahi has already commenced.
Sources from the service said those in the race include the six Deputy Comptroller Generals (DCGs), and the six Assistant Comptroller Generals (ACGs) including the four Zonal Coordinators who report to the CG’s office directly.
The DCGs according to the Customs website list are John Atte who heads Corporate & Support Service, Adewuyi Akinade heading Modernisation Research & Economic Relations, Nwosu A.C. heads Excise, FTZ & Ind. Incentives. Others are Ibrahim Mera in charge of Human Resource Department, while Aliu G.T heads Tariff & Trade.
The ACGs (Headquarters), and four ACGs in the zones report directly to the Comptroller-General . They include Zonal Coordinator, Zone A, Lagos, ACG Victor Gbemudu, Alu Sule heads Zone B – Kaduna, Zone C – Port Harcourt is headed by Mohammed Ahmed and Zone D is under ACG Paul Ukaigwe