Ayomide Awe
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has asked the Nigeria Customs Service to explain why some candidates who made the final recruitment list and accepted provisional appointment offers were excluded from its basic training exercise.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has challenged the Nigeria Customs Service over the exclusion of some successful candidates from its basic training exercise despite their appearance on the final recruitment list and acceptance of provisional appointment offers.
Falana, through his law firm, Falana & Falana’s Chambers, has written to the Comptroller-General of Customs, demanding an explanation for the decision and a reconsideration of the affected candidates’ exclusion.
The lawyers also requested the disclosure of relevant recruitment records to establish the circumstances surrounding the candidates’ disqualification after successfully progressing through the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise.
In a letter dated October 27, 2026, and addressed to the Comptroller-General at the Service’s headquarters in Abuja, the law firm said it was acting on behalf of the affected candidates whose particulars were contained in an accompanying schedule.
The letter explained that the candidates participated in the recruitment exercise advertised by the Customs Service on December 27, 2024, for vacancies in three cadres: Assistant Superintendent of Customs, Assistant Inspector of Customs and Customs Assistant.
According to the lawyers, their clients successfully completed the required stages of the recruitment process and were subsequently included in the final list of successful candidates published by the Service in July 2026.
Following the publication, the candidates reportedly received individual notifications through the official recruitment portal confirming that they had been offered provisional appointments into their respective cadres.
The law firm said the candidates were thereafter directed to upload their medical certificates of fitness, undergo the prescribed drug tests and formally accept their provisional appointment offers on or before August 4, 2026.
It maintained that the affected candidates complied with all the requirements within the stipulated period and received electronic confirmations acknowledging their acceptance of the offers.
The lawyers further disclosed that the candidates attended the physical screening and documentation exercise organised by the Customs Service, where they submitted themselves to the required verification, medical, drug and physical fitness assessments.
However, despite fulfilling the requirements and participating in the subsequent screening exercise, the candidates were allegedly excluded from the basic training exercise without any formal communication explaining the decision.
alana’s Chambers said the affected candidates were not informed of any adverse findings against them, failure to meet recruitment requirements or any decision withdrawing, cancelling or invalidating their provisional appointments.
The firm also maintained that, to the best of its clients’ knowledge, all documents submitted during the recruitment and screening processes were genuine and verifiable.
Questioning the rationale behind the exclusion, the lawyers argued that their clients had progressed beyond the initial stages of the recruitment process, appeared on the final list of successful candidates, accepted provisional appointment offers and participated in the required screening exercises.
They consequently urged the Comptroller-General to provide a clear explanation for their exclusion, disclose relevant records relating to the recruitment exercise and reconsider the decision to prevent the affected candidates from participating in the basic training
The development has raised concerns about the transparency and fairness of the Customs recruitment process, particularly the treatment of candidates who had been officially listed as successful and received provisional appointment offers but were subsequently left out of the training exercise
The Nigeria Customs Service had yet to provide its response to the allegations contained in the letter as of the time of filing this report.
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