ABUJA: The Comptroller- General, Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali retired on Tuesday warned officers of the service on information transmission. He said that “Consequently any non-designated officer that transmits or circulation information that should be properly handled by the PRO will be sanctioned.” He spoke while declaring the workshop on crisis communication which the service organised for its PROs and customs correspondents in Customs Command and Staff College, Gwagwalada, Abuja. According to Ali, messages from the NCS must always be correct and professionally communicated to the public. He noted that the ability of any organisation to deliver on its mandates depends largely on how it is understood. Ali said PR can, therefore, be a tool for entrenching higher integrity among operatives and compliance from stakeholders.
The Customs boss revealed that NCS is among the few organisations in Nigeria that have already complied with Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) requirements that only members of the Institute are appointed as PROs. He recalled that in 2012, virtually all NCS PROs were inducted as Associate Members of NIPR. Ali vowed that NCS under his watch will continue to encourage professionalism by providing support for such training and retraining of PR officers in addition to other core Customs courses. NIPR president, Dr Rotimi Oladele decorated Ali as an ordinary fellow of the institute. According to him, Ali will always win in a crisis situation because he means well for the country. He advised the NCS to learn to extinguish crises.
