BY FUNMI ALUKO

The Customs Area Controller (CAC, Nigeria Customs Service, ApapaArea Command, Comptroller Babajide Jaiyeoba has commended officers of the Non Intrusive Inspection Technology Unit (NIITU) for their invaluable contributions to the overall success of the command .

Comptroller Jaiyeoba who was on an unscheduled visit to the scanning site reminded the officers of the importance of team work as a strong basis to sustain the gains of compliance and revenue collection recently recorded by the command.

This is even as he specially thanked Deputy Comptroller Salamatu Atuluku, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the scanning site and encouraged the unit not to be deterred by complaints coming from persons who were made to pay accurate duties to government after issuance of demand notices

According to him, no business person who is made to part with money will be happy with officers that refused compromising the ethics of their job. The Command Public Relations Officer, CSC Abubakar Usman in a release quoted the CAC while addressing the officers, as saying: “The main reason for me coming here is to appreciate you. I may not see you but I have seen your work and I won’t keep quiet about what I have seen about your work. You are doing very well. I just want to encourage you to work as a team. If you don’t work as a team, you give room for outsiders to come in and when they come in, they divide you and when they divide you, achieving success will be very difficult

“Do your work without blemish. Once you keep your arm straight, you can stand before anybody. Your work as a customs officer is to ensure that you do the correct thing

“For those of you doing intervention in the form of Demand Notice(DN) , there is nobody who part with money that will be happy with you. They will want to play intelligent by hiding somewhere. When you fetch them from their hiding place, they become your enemy. Whatever they write about anybody here will still come down to me and if anybody works well, the onus on me is to defend such a person”, adding:

“Just have it at the back of your mind that you owe yourself the duty of doing your work diligently whether anyone comes around as a friend or enemy.It is not enough for you to rest. The reward for hard work is more work. These demands require sacrifice so that you can maintain the status.”