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| The Federal High Court complex in Abuja, photographed on 31 October 2018. File photograph. Ovinuchi Prince Ejiohuo / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. |
The Federal Character Commission (FCC) has reportedly brought a case against the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and its Comptroller-General, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, at the Federal High Court in Abuja over alleged obstruction of its recruitment oversight duties.
The commission accuses the service of withholding records, excluding it from stages of the recruitment process and disregarding a directive to suspend specified activities while it examined compliance with federal character requirements.
One allegation concerns a letter dated 25 March 2026 through which the FCC requested recruitment documents, including nominal rolls. The commission alleges that Customs failed to supply the records despite receiving the request.
It also contends that the service proceeded without presenting key recruitment stages for monitoring, preventing the commission from carrying out its supervisory responsibilities.
The FCC further alleges that Customs disregarded its directive of 23 October 2026 to halt specified recruitment and training activities pending a review.
Another aspect of the complaint concerns recruitment criteria and eligibility requirements. The commission alleges that Customs failed to provide sufficiently clear criteria and comprehensive guidelines, leaving it unable to establish how available positions would be distributed among states and geopolitical zones.
The FCC maintains that access to relevant records and participation in recruitment monitoring form part of its statutory responsibilities. It argues that federal institutions must cooperate with those requirements when filling public-service positions.
The allegations follow an earlier public disagreement between the institutions over candidates who appeared on recruitment lists but subsequently failed to receive training invitations.
In its published position on 30 October, the FCC said more than 500 applicants had complained of exclusion despite claiming to have completed screening, documentation and medical examinations.
The commission also cited allegations that some people whose names did not appear on the published lists received training invitations. It called for an examination of the records to establish what happened between the publication of successful candidates’ names and admission to training.
Customs had previously defended the need for further checks after shortlisting. In a statement reported on 19 October, its spokesman, Abdullahi Maiwada, said appearing on a published list did not automatically qualify an applicant for enlistment.
He said candidates still had to satisfy requirements covering credentials, age, physical fitness, medical examinations and drug screening.
The service announced a review of complaints involving 397 disqualified applicants after Adeniyi met some of those affected. Maiwada said the reassessment would consider individual complaints while retaining the prescribed recruitment standards.
Customs also said applicants accepted for reconsideration would undergo fresh screening and that the review offered no automatic guarantee of admission to training.