The Federal Character Commission (FCC) has instituted criminal proceedings against the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and its Comptroller-General, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, over alleged violations of the Federal Character principle in the Service’s 2025/2026 recruitment exercise.
The charges were filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, accusing the Customs Service and its head of failing to comply with statutory requirements on recruitment monitoring, disclosure of records and equitable representation.
In a four-count charge dated November 12, 2026, and signed by the FCC’s Deputy Director of Legal, Garuba Zulfik Afakhade, the Commission accused the defendants of withholding recruitment records, including nominal rolls, despite a formal request.
The FCC alleged that the Service failed to submit relevant stages of its recruitment exercise for monitoring and disregarded a directive to suspend specified recruitment and training activities pending a review.
It also accused the Customs Service of failing to provide clear recruitment criteria and comprehensive eligibility guidelines, there you preventing the Commission from determining the state and geopolitical distribution of available vacancies.
The Commission said the alleged offences contravened provisions of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
Here are the four counts of the charge
COUNT ONE
“That you, the Nigeria Customs Service of No. 2 Lake Taal Close, Off Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja, and you, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi “M”, of No. 2 Lake Taal Close, Off Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja being Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, on or about 25th March, 2025, at Abuja, and by letter Ref. No. FCC/012/S.10/8/2/VOL.IV/256 dated 25th March, 2026, received in the office of the Comptroller General of Customs on 27th March 2025, required you to furnish the information and records (Nominal Rolls) concerning the 2025 recruitment exercise in hard and soft copies, failed to furnish the same on or about 28th April, 2026, continued to fail to furnish them; and that you Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, being an officer of the 1st Defendant, recklessly, negligently or willfully acquiesced in the 1st Defendant’s failure to comply with the directives of the Commission, thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 14(3) (b) of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, LFN 2004 and punishable under Section 15 of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, LFN 2004.”
COUNT TWO
“That you, the Nigeria Customs Service of No. 2 Lake Taal Close, Off Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja, and you, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi “M”, of No. 2 Lake Taal Close, Off Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja being Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, between 14th September, 2026 and 7th October, 2026 or thereabout, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, failed, refused or neglected to invite and/or submit yourself to the Commission to monitor the relevant stage(s) of the ongoing 2025/2026 recruitment exercise, contrary to section 5 (1) (b) of the FCC (Establishment) Act and paragraph 8 of the applicable Procedures for Recruitment dated 1st day of September, 2014 and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 14(3) (c) of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, LFN 2004 and punishable under section 15 of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, LFN 2004.’’
COUNT THREE
“That you, the Nigeria Customs Service of No. 2 Lake Taal Close, Off Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja, and you, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi “M”, of No. 2 Lake Taal Close, Off Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja being Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, between 22nd October, 2026 and 23rd October, 2026 or thereabout, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, failed, refused or neglected to comply with the directive of the Federal Character Commission to suspend the 2026 specified recruitment/training activity pending review; preserve records; permit monitoring, etc. After receipt of the letter Ref. No. FCC/012/S.102/2/VOL.IV/259 dated 23rd October, 2026, authored by the Commission’s Chairman and issued pursuant to section 5 (1) (c) of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, LFN 2004, you continued with the said exercise served on the CG, Nigeria Customs Service, in flagrant disregard and disobedience to the lawful directive of the Federal Character Commission directing the Service to suspend recruitment exercise/training exercise, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 14(3) (b) of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, LFN 2004 and punishable under section 15 of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, LFN 2004.”
COUNT FOUR
“That you, the Nigeria Customs Service of No. 2 Lake Taal Close, Off Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja, and you, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi “M”, of No. 2 Lake Taal Close, Off Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja being Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, between 30th January, 2026 and 20th October, 2026 or thereabout, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, in relation to the 2025/2026 recruitment into the Nigeria Customs Service, failed to produce clear criteria and comprehensive guidelines for determining eligibility for employment, notwithstanding repeated request by the Commission, that you, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi negligently or willfully acquiesced in the service’s failure to produce the criteria and comprehensive guidelines which acts prevented the Commission to determine the states or zonal spread of the vacancies, thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 14 (3) (f) of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, LFN 2004 and punishable under section 15 of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, LFN 2004.”
Politics Nigeria reports that no date has been fixed for hearing of the case.