Customs Acknowledges Recruitment Irregularities

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has acknowledged that some names were allegedly smuggled into its recruitment list, amid growing controversy over the selection of candidates for its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise.

The Service’s National Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller Abdullahi Maiwada, disclosed this during an interview with BBC Hausa, according to a report published on Friday, October 23, 2026.

Maiwada said the Service had identified names that were not supposed to be included among candidates invited for training.

“Some names were smuggled into the list. We won’t train them,” he said.

The Customs spokesperson did not publicly identify those responsible for the alleged manipulation or disclose whether any suspects had been arrested in connection with the matter.

Controversy Over Successful Candidates

The development follows complaints from applicants who said they were excluded from training despite appearing on the published list of successful candidates.

The Service had announced 3,852 successful applicants out of 573,680 applications received for the recruitment exercise, which began in December 2024.

The selected candidates comprised 1,275 in the Superintendent Cadre, 367 in the Inspectorate Cadre and 2,210 in the Customs Assistant Cadre.

Some applicants alleged that candidates whose names were absent from the published list received invitations to complete documentation and attend training, while some listed candidates were left out.

The complaints have raised questions about the final stages of the recruitment process and whether the published list was altered or bypassed.

Customs Insists on Screening Requirements

Maiwada maintained that appearing on the published list did not automatically guarantee final enlistment.

According to the Service, candidates must satisfy all prescribed requirements, including credential verification, physical fitness assessments, medical examinations, age verification and drug screening.

The agency has also warned that applicants found to have engaged in certificate fraud or other criminal conduct could be referred to the appropriate authorities for prosecution.

The allegations of unauthorised entries do not, however, establish who introduced the names or whether any particular individual committed an offence.

397 Disqualified Applicants to Have Complaints Reviewed

In a related development, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, directed a case-by-case review of complaints from 397 applicants who were disqualified during screening.

The Service announced the review after meeting some of the affected candidates, who argued that they had been shortlisted but were subsequently prevented from proceeding to the training college.

Customs said the review would allow legitimate complaints to be examined without compromising recruitment standards.

It stressed that the exercise would not automatically qualify the affected applicants for admission and that candidates would still have to pass the required screening stages.

Federal Character Commission Demands Suspension

The controversy has also attracted the attention of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), which called for the immediate suspension of the Customs recruitment exercise over alleged breaches of federal character requirements.

At a press briefing in Abuja, the chairman of the FCC’s Financial Services Committee, Abdulwasiu Bawa-Allah, alleged that the commission had not been adequately involved in monitoring the exercise.

The FCC demanded access to recruitment records and a reconciliation of the published list with the candidates invited for training.

The commission said its intervention was aimed at ensuring fairness and equitable representation, rather than securing positions for unqualified applicants.

Customs Faces Pressure to Clarify Recruitment Process

The latest admission adds to calls for greater transparency in the recruitment exercise, particularly from candidates who say they completed the required stages but have yet to receive training invitations.

While Customs has pledged to exclude candidates whose inclusion is found to be irregular, the individuals responsible for the alleged manipulation and the full extent of the discrepancies remain unclear.

The outcome of the review and any further investigation is expected to clarify the status of affected applicants and establish whether unauthorised changes were made to the recruitment process.