No Law Requires Me to Put on Uniform, I Won't Honour Senate Invitation - Col. Hameed Ali

Embattled Comptroller-General (CG) of the Nige­ria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), has said that he would not honour the Sen­ate’s invitation that he should ap­pear before it today in the agen­cy’s uniform.
Ali stated this at the Presiden­tial Villa on Tuesday, shortly af­ter he wrote a letter to the Senate, informing the lawmakers that he will not honour their summons to appear before them while adorned in the uniform of a Customs’ CG.
Ali, who was clutching a white official file of the Presidency, did not go to President Muhammadu Buhari’s office, but prayed at the Villa mosque before leaving.

As he emerged from the mosque, he was approached by State House correspondents to state his side of the drama that has pitted him against the senators.
The Customs boss told the journalists that since a private liti­gant had gone to court over the is­sue of his wearing the uniform as a condition for appearing before the Senate, he would be acting subju­dice to speak elaborately on the matter.
He, however, declared that he would not honour the Senate sum­mons based on the court case, for which he has been served with the relevant legal documents.
His words: “The case is in court already. Somebody has sued us. It is subjudice.
“I have gotten my write of sum­mons and they said status quo ante should remain; which means noth­ing moves until the court makes a pronouncement.”
“A private individual sued all of us; he wants an interpretation of the section (of the law) that is in contention. I don’t want to talk so that I am not held in contempt of court.”
Ali has been in a running bat­tle with the senators who have in­sisted that he appears before them in the Customs’ uniform whereas he maintains that no law requires him to do so; and that he was not appointed to wear uniform.
A retired Army Colonel, Ali was appointed as Customs CG by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.