Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Colonel Hameed Ali retired has come under intense Senate pressure over his refusal to wear custom uniform since his appointment in twenty-fifteen.

This is coming as a former Comptroller-Generals of Custom said Colonel Ali should have been addressed as sole administrator of Customs and not Customs Comptroller-General.

The former Customs boss, Mohammed Bello who served under former President Ibrahim Babangida administration noted that since Ali was not ready to wear a uniform depicting the office and rank of Customs Comptroller-General, he should have been designated sole administrator.

The Altercation with Ali occurred at an interactive session the Senate Committee on Customs and Excise had with the management Customs, Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Nigeria over an impending amendment bill aimed at restructuring the Customs.

A member of the Committee, Obinna Ogba, demanded to know why Ali as Customs’ Comptroller-General still appear and wear mufti close to two years after his appointment.

The Ebonyi Central Senator noted that the continuous appearance of Ali in mufti several months after his appointment appears to be highly demoralising to officers and men of the front-line revenue generating agency.

Ali fired back that as a former military officer, tradition does not permit him to wear any other uniform.

Ali’s response infuriated another of the Committee, Dino Melaye.

The visibly enraged Melaye promptly reminded the Custom Comptroller-General that a retired General of the Nigerian Army, Halidu Hananiya wore Federal Road Safety Commission’s uniform when he was appointed Corps Marshall of the Commission.

Ali countered and told the committee that General Hananiya made a fundamental mistake by wearing FRSC uniform.

The insistence of Ali that he would not wear Customs uniform angered Ogba who angrily walked out the session.

While walking out of the hearing room, Ogba retorted “this is how you people keep on deceiving Nigerians on wrong action and still defending it.”

The Customs boss would have none of that as he refused to give in to the pressure of the committee members.

The committee also confronted Ali over the non-composition of Customs board since twenty-fifteen when it was dissolved.

Chairman of the committee, Hope Uzodinma, insisted that “it was wrong and in fact illegal for the Customs Comptroller-General alone to promote and fire officers without the board in place.

Uzodinma mandated the Comptroller-General to ensure the immediate constitution of the board in line with Customs Act.

Although the session ended almost on a sour note, Uzodinma jokingly told the Custom Comptroller-General that they were releasing him to go and sow his uniform while they continue with official of Ministry of Finance and Central Bank.

Bello at another session supported the committee for querying the Colonel Ali over his continuous refusal to wear Custom uniform.

The former Customs boss noted that Colonel Ali should have been designated as Sole administrator and not CG of Customs since he was not prepared wear Customs uniform.

Other former Customs CGs including Buba Jacob now Gwon Gwon of Jos, Bernard-Shaw Nwadialo? , A. Mustapha, defended the Customs Service on implementation of destination inspection policy as against pre-shipment inspection policy which the committee said remained the existing Act.