Group Demands Sacking Of Customs C-G, Hameed Ali

The Association of Northern Young Marketers has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari not to renew the appointment of Nigeria Customs Service Comptroller General, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) whose tenure ends on Tuesday, August 27, 2019.

According to the association, since the appointment of Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) as the NCS boss, he has created drawback to genuine businessmen and women over undue harassment and intimidation by his men that has pauperize the people.

This was contained in a statement issued in Kano and forwarded to Solacebase on Thursday by the association Chairman,  Muhammad Bala Hotoro.

The statement accused Hameed Ali led NCS of deliberate acts of sabotaging business activities in the northern parts of the country.

‘’’The Nigerian Customs Service officials raids markets at wills confiscating goods imported legally and extort the traders in the course of retrieving their goods, ’said the statement.

‘’There are so many instances of car dealers and commodity goods with duty value paid papers been extorted in Kano, Kaduna, and Sokoto severally by Nigeria Customs personnel which the Comptroller General cannot claim ignorance of. Because we have on many occasion made representation to him to protect our businesses.’’

It added that the Hameed Ali led Customs seized several consignments from businessmen without auctioning the same in good time so as for some of the items not to be destroyed.

The association alleged that a close associate of Hameed Ali, Saleh Ahmed living in Kaduna is mostly using as a decoy to acquire auctioned goods at low prices.

‘’ Just recently, Saleh Ahmed bought sixteen brand new expensive jeeps auctioned at N16m hence each costing N1m, while the street value of the Jeeps is not less than N50m each.’’

The statement urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a young vibrant person with credibility to man the NCS that will contribute to Nigeria’s economy meaningfully.