The Nigerian Customs Service says the newly promoted Deputy Superintendent of Customs (DSC) seen in a viral video is not an ex-bandit as speculated in some quarters.
The National Public Relations Officer of the Service, Comptroller Joseph Attah stated this while responding to misleading insinuations about the officer who was being decorated with his new rank and out of excitement lost coordination, due to what he called nervous excitement, adding that the officer was recruited in 2011.
He said that another picture of a suspected bandit being referred to as the same customs officer was the handiwork of mischief makers who never meant well for Nigeria while urging the public to ignore the wrong juxtaposition.
He said, “The attention of the Nigeria Customs Service has been drawn to a ridiculous video making rounds on social media platforms, comparing a newly promoted Deputy Superintendent of Customs and a bandit with an insinuation that the Customs Officer is the bandit that was recruited into the Service”.
“When this Officer in a nervous excitement could not get his acts together during decoration, resulting in various public commentaries, little did we imagine that mischief-makers would descend so low as to fabricate this evil”. He added.
He further said that “For the avoidance of doubt, the Officer in question was recruited through a rigorous process and trained in 2011 and has just grown to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Customs, ( 3 stars )”.
“It is therefore very unfortunate that those who are bent on presenting the Country in a bad light could take a simple human error during decoration to ridicule his person and attempting to extend same to the Service and the nation. This is the handwork of unpatriotic elements that should be ignored.
A good look at the pictures will clearly show that the Customs Officer is NOT the pictured bandit.
“NCS, therefore, urges all well-meaning Nigerians to ignore the ridiculous comparison and treat it as the work of those who do not wish the nation well” he added.