2 months after elections, Customs officers yet to get allowances

Officers of the Nigerian Customs Service have expressed dissatisfaction over the non-payment of their election allowances, two months after the 2023 general elections.

The officers include Customs Assistants, Assistant Inspector of Customs, Inspector of Customs, Assistant Superintendent of Customs, Deputy Superintendent of Customs, Superintendent of Customs as well as Chief Superintendent Customs officers who were deployed across the country to complement the strength of the Nigeria Police Force during the elections.

Daily Trust reports that some personnel of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) had made similar complaints in March, even though investigations revealed that some of them were later paid last month.

A document dated February 8, 2023 and signed by M Abba-Kura, Acting Deputy Comptroller-General (E, I&I) for the Comptroller-General of Customs titled: ‘Re: Forwarding List of Officers Deployed for 2023 General Election Duties,’ contained a list of 3,138 Custom officers posted for election duty across the country.

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The list of deployment showed Kano State had the highest deployment of 242 Customs officers deployed for the exercise; Abuja, 178; Kaduna, 174; Bauchi, 146 and Katsina,143/.

Two inspectors of Customs were deployed to Abuja, two others deployed to Bauchi and Katsina States and one assistant superintendent of Customs deployed to Ogun State confirmed that they had not received their allowances.

A deputy superintendent of Customs deployed to Kano State also expressed dissatisfaction with the delay in payment of their election allowances. “We still do not know what happened to our election allowances. It is almost two months now but we have not received any amount, and I can confidently tell you I have not heard of any custom officer that has received the allowance,” he said.

In Ogun State, an assistant superintendent of Customs said though they had not been informed of how much they were entitled to, regardless of rankings, some officers had lost hope of being paid.

Reacting, the spokesman of the Nigeria Customs Service through its spokesperson, Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada, confirmed the non-payment of election allowances to over 3,000 officers across the country.

Maiwada said although the service was not responsible for the payment of election dues, efforts had been initiated to resolve the issue. 

He, however, provided no explanation on who is responsible for the payment and delay, but stressed that the issue would be resolved as soon as practically possible.