Senator Dino Melaye and the Comptroller General (CG) of Nigeria
Customs Service (NCS), Hameed Ali, on Monday disagreed over
protocol-related matters.
An exchange occurred during the visit of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee
on Waste in the Nigeria Customs Service to the Customs Headquarters,
Abuja.
Chairman of the Committee, Melaye said that the Customs CG was
expected to have received the committee members into the premises and
not just meeting them at the conference room.
He said the protocol had been the practice with statutory bodies like
Customs, Immigration, Prisons, etc, over the years and wondered why
such etiquette was not accorded the committee.
“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,” NAN quoted Melaye as saying.
Reacting, Ali told 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.
“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.