The Federal Character Commission (FCC) has filed criminal charges against the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and its Comptroller-General, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, over alleged breaches of the Federal Character Commission Act in the agency’s 2025/2026 recruitment exercise.
The proceedings were instituted before the Federal High Court in Abuja following the commission’s attempts to obtain recruitment records and monitor the exercise to ensure compliance with the federal character principle.
According to the charge, the Customs Service allegedly failed to provide recruitment documents requested by the commission, including nominal rolls, despite receiving a formal request dated March 25, 2026.
The FCC also accused the service of failing to submit relevant stages of the recruitment process for its monitoring and oversight.
Another allegation concerns an alleged failure by the NCS to comply with a directive issued by the commission on October 23, 2026, ordering the suspension of specified recruitment and training activities pending a review.
The commission further claimed that the Customs Service did not provide clear recruitment criteria and comprehensive eligibility guidelines, making it difficult to assess how available vacancies were distributed across states and geopolitical zones.
The FCC maintained that access to recruitment records, monitoring of employment exercises and enforcement of equitable representation are statutory obligations imposed on public institutions.
It stressed that government agencies are required to comply with these responsibilities and cannot treat them as optional directives.
