FCC drags Customs, Adeniyi to court over recruitment

The Federal Character Commission has taken the Nigeria Customs Service and its Comptroller-General, Bashir Adeniyi, to the Federal High Court in Abuja over alleged breaches of federal character requirements in the agency’s recruitment exercise.

The commission filed a four-count criminal charge against the Service and Adeniyi on Thursday, accusing them of withholding recruitment records, frustrating its monitoring efforts and continuing with the exercise despite a directive to suspend it.

The charge sheet, sighted on Friday, alleged that the Customs Service failed to submit the nominal rolls for its 2025 recruitment exercise despite a request contained in a letter dated March 25, 2026.

The commission also accused Adeniyi of allowing the Service to disregard its request, an alleged offence under Section 14(3)(b) of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act.

The first count alleged that the Comptroller-General “recklessly, negligently or wilfully acquiesced” in the Service’s failure to comply with the commission’s directives.

In the second count, the commission accused the defendants of failing to submit themselves to monitoring at relevant stages of the 2025/2026 recruitment exercise between September 14 and October 7, 2026.

The third count alleged that the Customs Service continued recruitment and training activities despite receiving a letter dated October 23 directing it to suspend the exercise pending a review.

The commission further accused the defendants of failing to preserve relevant records and provide access for monitoring.
In the fourth count, it alleged that the Service failed to provide clear eligibility criteria and comprehensive recruitment guidelines despite repeated requests between January 30 and October 20, 2026.

According to the commission, the failure prevented it from determining the state and zonal distribution of vacancies in the recruitment exercise.

The charges were brought under Section 14(3) of the Federal Character Commission Act and are punishable under Section 15 of the law.
The commission listed three witnesses, including the Chairman of its Committee on Financial Services, Abdulwasiu K. Bawa-Allah; a committee member, Isa Jibrin Bida; and the committee’s clerk, Usman Yaruwa.
It also listed 14 documents it intends to tender as evidence, including correspondence between the two agencies, a report on the

Customs Service and records of the commission’s October 22 press conference.
The prosecution said it might call additional witnesses as the case progresses.
The criminal charge follows a prolonged disagreement over the Customs Service’s recruitment process, including complaints by applicants who said they were shortlisted but later excluded from the training programme.

The commission had, on October 23, asked the Service to suspend its ongoing recruitment training, alleging that hundreds of candidates who completed screening and medical examinations were not invited, while some applicants whose names were absent from the published final list allegedly received training invitations.
It also questioned whether the exercise had been conducted without its required monitoring and whether the Customs Service obtained a certificate of compliance before issuing training invitations.

The Service had announced that 3,852 candidates were successful in its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise out of 573,680 applications received.
The final lists for the Superintendent, Inspectorate and Customs Assistant cadres were published between July 28 and 30, 2026.

However, the Customs Service said it identified screening issues involving 397 applicants and initiated a review after receiving complaints from candidates who were shortlisted but subsequently disqualified.
Adeniyi had ordered a case-by-case reassessment of the complaints, while the Service maintained that being shortlisted did not automatically guarantee enlistment.