Illegal Retirement Notices Tears Nigerian Customs Apart

The frosty relationship between Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Comptroller General of Customs, Dikko Inde Abdullahi, may have worsened following disagreements over the sacking of three Assistant Comptroller Generals of Customs.

While Okonjo-Iweala is said to be pushing for a recall of the retired Assistant Comptroller Generals—Dr. Olusegun Agbaje, M. Jamo and E. O. Offem, following petitions written by two of them to the National Security Adviser and the minister, Abdullahi is insisting that the retirement of the officers followed due process as approved by the Board chaired by Okonjo-Iweala.

Our correspondent gathered that a stormy session of the Board has been fixed for today with the sole agenda of determining the fate of the retired officers who claimed in the petition that they were unjustly retired to pave the way for Abdullahi’s preferred successor.

On receipt of the petition, Okonjo-Iweala, in a memo dated June 30th, demanded explanations from Abdullahi, noting: “there are several of these complaints, please let me know what is going on.”

Copies of the petitions obtained by our correspondent indicated that Agbaje, while claiming to have been issued a retirement letter without the approval of the Board, said he was unjustly retired on the pretext that he was not medically fit.

Offem, in a petition addressed to the NSA, Alhaji Sambo Dasuki, noted that Abdullahi “actually planned to retire us to clear way for his choice of officers whom he wants to handover the service to for obvious reasons.”

There no evidence that the third person, Jamo, wrote any petition to contest his retirement.

In his response to questions raised in the petitions, Abdullahi, in a memo titled “Appeal for rescue from continued persecution and illegal retirement” dated July 8 and addressed to Okonjo-Iweala, dismissed the allegations of victimisation levelled against him.

He noted that the retirement followed due process contrary to claims made by the petitioners, arguing any attempt to recall the officers “will warrant recall to service of all previously retired officers.”

He wrote: “In the petition by Dr. David Olusegun Agbaje, the officer alleged that he was being illegally retired from the Service contrary to the decision of the Customs Board. The Coordinating Minister may wish to recall that Dr. Agbaje was presented along with others to the Medical Board in line with the provisions of Section 070312 and 070317 of the Public Service Rules (PSR) which empowers the Chief Executive of an organisation to set up a Medical Board to ascertain the mental and physical fitness of his staff.

“At the end of its sitting (16th – 18th July and 3rd – 4th September, 2012), the medical Board found out that Dr. David Olusegun Agbaje has one eye (Right) with normal function while the left eye is ARTIFICIAL. He was found UNFIT to continue to serve in a paramilitary Organisation.

“It may be noted that in a similar exercise in March 2011, other officers found with visual challenges were also recommended to the management for retirement. The Management which included Dr. Agbaje approved the recommendation of the Medical Board and the affected officers have all been retired by the Customs Board.

“The Coordinating Minister may also wish to note that the petition and other previous ones forwarded to her office were not routed through the Comptroller-General in contravention of extant public Regulations. This constitutes an act of gross misconduct and insubordination.

“It is also pertinent to note that precedence has been established in the handling of similar cases and any contrary action in favour of Dr. Agbaje will warrant recall to service of all previously retired officers.

“In view of the above, the Coordinating Minister is invited to disregard the petition as it lacks substance.”

However, the minister was said to have been unsatisfied with the explanations given by Abdullahi on the retirement and had suggested a probable recall of the officers.

It was gathered that only the Board has the power to recall the officers at a properly constituted meeting attended by two-thirds of the members.

While Okonjo-Iweala is the Chairman of the Board, Abdullahi is the Deputy Chairman and the two are yet to shift their positions at last night.

A source told our correspondent that there may be more to the face-off than the retirement of the officers as Okonjo-Iweala and Abdullahi have been having problems over administrative and operational issues concerning the Customs Service.

Today’s board meeting is scheduled for the Boardroom of the Customs Service Office in Abuja.