Story by Dili Utomi
On Friday, the 20th of December, a baton change occurred at the Tin Can Island Port Command of the Nigeria Customs Service with the newly promoted Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs, Dera Nnadi handing over to the new Customs Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Frank Onyeka.
ACG Nnadi has set records of performance at the Command that will take good efforts to beat, but feelers from different quarters indicate that the right man to match ACG Nnadi’s records and probably beat them has been appointed to replace him.
Comptroller Onyeka for one has served at different positions and at different Commands and Units and has also been known to have performed tremendously well at all his positions. He helped to block revenue leakages and boost the generated revenue while he was the officer-in-charge of valuation unit at the Tin Can Island Port Command some years back.
Comptroller Onyeka’s stock rose even higher when he was posted to the Onne Customs Command of the Nigeria Customs where he served as the officer-in-charge, gate. He was the first winner of the officer of the month award instituted by the then Customs Area Controller, Imam Baba as he also ensured that all cleared cargoes paid the right duties before exiting the gate.
The last place of assignment for this highly intelligent officer was at the Apapa Command where he served as the officer-in-charge of the gate. Comptroller Onyeka’s assiduous nature, his man management and interpersonal skills were brought to bear on his operation as the Command also set records upon records in all the core mandates of the Service.
His knowledge of the core principles of the Service and his willingness to always operate the open door policy have helped to make Comptroller Onyeka the performing Customs officer that he is today.
Comptroller Onyeka’s public relations skills and sagacity with his professional acumen for trade facilitation, revenue generation, and anti-smuggling feats are well known. His deployment to Tincan Island Port will see him ushering in his years of experience and training to uphold the Comptroller General of Customs’ Policy Thrust of Collaboration, Consolidation, and Innovation as catalysts to the achievement of the Customs core mandates.
In a chat with press men after the handing over ceremony, Comptroller Onyeka had said “We intend to leverage on the existing rapprochement between the officers of the Command and stakeholders, obviously ACG Nnadi has done tremendously well in the area of revenue generation and we aslo intend to build on the foundation that he has laid down in consonant with the consolidation policy of the Comptroller-General of Customs”
“We are using the foundation laid down as a spring board towards achieving our set goals, but it is not just nearly enough for you to be seasoned, or grounded or technically superb, but you also need prayers and the cooperation of good stakeholders to succeed. We intend also to improve very much on revenue generation”.
Stakeholders who know the person of Comptroller Frank Onyeka are also expecting that his friendly mien will rub off on the mandate of trade facilitation and that their businesses will witness great improvement in the very near future.
Comptroller Onyeka while also chatting with some journalists much later added that ACG Nnadi did fantastically well while he was at the TCIP Command, but that he would love to do better.
In relation to the media, the CAC said that “every media person is my friend and I am opening my door to everyone in order to reach the promise land”. He however added that some people do thrive in controversy and used the occasion to appeal to all journalsists to reach out to him to clear any grey area before going to press on any matter. He appeals to journalsists to avail him and his Command with vitally credible information on any subject that will make his job much easier.
The euphoria is very much high about the potentials of this great revenue expert and the expectation is that he will bring his usual Midas touch to bear on the performance of the TCIP Command.
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