Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Waste in the Nigeria Customs Service led by Dino Melaye has on Monday taken the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) up over alleged breach of protocol.
Melaye, chairman of the committee complained that the Comptroller General (CG) of Customs, Mr. Hameed Ali, did not receive his committee well.
According to him, Ali was expected to have come to the ground floor receive them.
Rather than welcome them right at the entrance, as expected by Melaye, Ali waited for the committee at the conference room.
Melaye, however, said the action was against protocol.
“Before reading the prepared speech of the committee, let me make this small remark on what we have just observed here in form of breach of protocols.
“Mr. CG, rather than meeting us here at the conference room by way of courtesy, you are supposed to have met us at the ground floor on arrival into the premises,’’ Melaye said.
But reacting, the customs boss informed the committee that the NCS had its own protocols different from other public establishments and should not be dictated to on matters of etiquette or protocol.
“We have our own protocol as regards receiving visitors like you. I don’t need to come downstairs to receive you just as nobody in the Senate or House of Representatives has ever come out to receive us anytime we visit the National Assembly.
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“Let me state clearly that in the Nigeria Customs Service we are servants of the people. We believe in Nigeria and working with others to make it great without being railroaded in anyway,” Ali said.
It would be recalled that the Senate and the Customs boss had been at war for sometime.
The Senate had picked on the Customs boss over his refusal to appear in Customs uniform whenever he was appearing before its committees.
Despite the criticism, the Customs boss had remained refused to yield, appearing in plain clothes whenever he went to the Senate on any issue.
(NAN)
