Customs officer from Daura sent on psychiatric test after proclaiming self Controller General

A mild drama played out on Monday at the office of the Controller-General of the Nigerian Customs.

It happened that Nura Dahiru, an assistant superintendent of customs walked into the office of the Controller-General and demanded Hameed Ali to hand over to him, claiming he was directed by President Muhammadu Buhari to assume the office of comptroller-general (CG). 

“As he came in, officers were saluting him because he was wearing that rank,” an insider said. 

“Sometime in May, he had posted on Facebook that he had been directed by the president to take over from Hameed Ali, and today when we saw him in the new rank, we thought, indeed, he has been promoted and so directed by the president. He went inside the CG’s office, sat in the waiting room, expecting the CG to handover to him.”

Nura Dahiru who is from Daura, has been forced to undergo medical test after promoting himself to the rank of deputy-Comptroller-General and demanded to be handed over so he can become the CG.

The Spokesman for the Nigeria Customs Service, Joseph Attah, said in a terse message that the officer was already at the customs medical centre to determine his frame of mind.

He said, “What happened was that an assistant superintendent of customs came to the office wearing the rank of a deputy comptroller-general.

“From questions and answers that followed, it was obvious that he was not in the right frame of mind, so a doctor was immediately invited. He is presently undergoing a medical examination at the medical unit of the service.”

It is also important to not that Dahiru would need to be promoted at least nine times to rise to the height of comptroller-general.