The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) yesterday said that it received 573,519 applications for 3,927 job positions for its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, just a week after opening the portal.

Recall that Finance Minister Olawale Edun had earlier confirmed that the Federal Government approved the recruitment of 3,927 officers into the NCS.

Providing an update on the process, Abdullahi Maiwada, the NCS National Public Relations Officer (PRO), revealed that 573,519 applicants had applied for the limited 3,927 positions.

According to him, “I want to break down the number of people that applied. We have two categories of officers: support staff, who are professionals, and general duty officers.

“For general duty, we have three categories of ranks. Under the superintendent cadre (general duty), we have 249,218 candidates who applied.

“Under the superintendent cadre (support staff), he said, “We have 27,722 applicants with HNDs and university degrees.

“For the inspector cadre, which includes those expected to apply with a National Certificate in Education (NCE) or a National Diploma, we have 115,634 applicants for general duty and 12,952 for support staff.

“As for the customs assistant cadre, these are applicants expected to apply with secondary school certificates. There are two categories: those who have a minimum of five credits, including Mathematics and English, and those without Mathematics and English.

“For general duty, we have 153,593 applicants, while for support staff, we have 14,400,” Maiwada stated

A mother and daughter were caught on camera fighting over a man in a hotel room, leaving viewers stunned. The footage, which has since gone viral, shows the two women engaged in an intense argument, with the man caught in the middle, trying to break up the heated exchange.

The mother, visibly furious, accused her daughter of trying to snatch her lover, sparking a storm of emotions. The daughter, in a desperate attempt to explain herself, was seen kneeling and begging her mother for forgiveness. But instead of calming the situation, the mother became more enraged, even physically striking her daughter.

The incident was recorded by a guest in the neighboring hotel room. The guest said it was like watching a Nollywood movie on display, but the question now is: Are they truly a real mother and daughter or just a business mom and daughter in a messy situation?

Victor Tyohemba, an Abuja-based accountant, his wife, a lawyer, and their two young children were en route to Abuja when their vehicle reportedly suffered a mechanical failure, leading to a devastating rollover.

Eyewitnesses told The Nation that the car caught fire shortly after the crash, leaving the victims with severe burns that rendered their identities unrecognizable.

The tragic loss has left their community in deep mourning. The family’s remains were laid to rest the following day in Igbor village, Gwer East Local Government Area of Benue State.

During the emotional burial ceremony, relatives and mourners gathered to bid farewell, their grief palpable as the casket containing the family was lowered into the ground.

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Zone A Operation Whirlwind Unit has intercepted smugglers attempting to transport over 10,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) concealed in sacks by smugglers in Badagry, as reported by The Nation.

In a statement, the Commander of Operation Whirlwind, Mahmood Bello, said that the operation took place on New Year’s Eve.

Customs operatives, he said, conducted surveillance along the waterside in Badagry, where they intercepted 61 sacks and seven jerry cans of PMS loaded in a large canoe headed for the Benin Republic.

Bello added that smugglers had revived an old smuggling technique of concealing PMS in sacks. This marked the first time this method was encountered during Operation Whirlwind, as previous seizures had involved PMS transported in jerry-cans.

According to him: “Recall that the National Coordinator instructed our operatives to intensify efforts during the festive period to prevent smugglers from exploiting the season. On December 31, 2024, our team conducted surveillance along the Badagry waterside and intercepted 61 sacks and seven jerry cans of PMS, all loaded in a large canoe bound for the Benin Republic.

Each sack, according to him, “contained 150 litres, translating to a total of 10,970 litres of PMS. The products were evacuated with reinforcement from the Nigerian military stationed at the Badagry Barracks. The operation was highly successful, with no casualties despite resistance from the smugglers.”

The senior Customs officer added that due to the volatile nature of the seized product, the National Coordinator had ordered its auctioning. The interception highlights the ongoing challenges faced by Customs in curbing smuggling activities along Nigeria’s borders.

The Nation

The Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Malam Shehu Mohammed, has pledged improved service delivery in 2025.

Mohammed made the pledge in his New Year message on Thursday in Abuja.

He commended the staff of the FRSC for their commitment to a safer road environment, leading to outstanding successes in 2024.

He said that the FRSC would build on the successes of 2024 to improve its services and make Nigerian roads safer.

The corps marshal assured that the FRSC would continue to prioritise the welfare and training of its personnel to enhance their productivity and service delivery.

“Management is committed to enunciating welfare policies that could boost their morals for sustained productivity and improved service delivery to the people,” he said.

Mohammed also emphasised the need for strategic partnership with stakeholders to tackle the menace of road traffic crashes in Nigeria.

He prayed for a more successful new year for all staff and Nigerians at large while enjoining everyone to be prepared for the tasks ahead by joining hands to tackle the menace of road traffic crashes with greater aggression in 2025.

The FRSC boss recalled some of the challenges encountered by the corps in the outgoing year such as fatal crashes, failure of some drivers to observe basic traffic rules and regulations as well as violence against personnel in parts of the country.

He restated his commitment to address such challenges in the new year, adding that ignoring traffic rules and regulations and penchant for militant behaviours towards the personnel of the corps would not be condoned in the new year.

“We have said it several times that road traffic crashes don’t just happen, they are caused and can be averted.

“That’s why we elevated our public enlightenment programmes this year to town hall meetings for conversation with cross sections of the people.

“We also strengthened the powers of the passengers to talk to drivers whenever they noticed something going wrong in any vehicles they are in.

“We have also enjoined our operatives to continue to show restraint in the face of provocations through our civil approach to the management of traffic,” the Corps Marshal said.

Mohammed expressed his management’s appreciation to President Bola Tinubu for his morale and logistics support for the FRSC.

The FRSC boss also acknowledged the enabling environment created by the president that made the successes recorded by the corps in the outgoing year possible.

He however, appealed to the strategic stakeholders to continue to rally support for the FRSC, pointing out that road safety was a shared responsibility which no single organisation, individual or government agencies could tackle effectively alone.

The corps marshal assures Nigerians of the commitment of the FRSC to greater vigilance on the nation’s highways and wishes all greater prosperity and safer motoring experiences in 2025. (NAN)