The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has cautioned Nigerians against falling victim to a growing wave of online scams involving fake recruitment and auction offers falsely attributed to the Service.
Speaking during a press briefing at the NCS headquarters in Abuja, the National Public Relations Officer, Assistant Comptroller Abdullahi Maiwada, decried the increasing use of social media by fraudsters to impersonate top Customs officials, including the Comptroller-General and retired officers.
“We have observed a disturbing rise in fake accounts using the names and images of senior Customs personnel to deceive unsuspecting members of the public with promises of jobs and auction deals,” Maiwada stated.
He stressed that the NCS does not conduct recruitment or auctions through unofficial or social media channels, describing such practices as “criminal acts designed to mislead and defraud.”
To demonstrate its resolve in tackling these scams, Maiwada revealed that the Service recently arrested one Mr. Okoli Okana Boniface on June 16, 2025. Boniface was accused of impersonating an aide to the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, while allegedly attempting to manipulate the Customs recruitment process.
“The Customs Police Unit investigated the case thoroughly and found it to be a calculated attempt to undermine the integrity of our recruitment exercise,” he said.
Maiwada reaffirmed the Service’s zero-tolerance stance on fraud and warned that further investigations were ongoing to identify other culprits involved in similar fraudulent activities.
He urged the public to verify all recruitment and auction-related information through the NCS’s official platforms and to disregard messages from unverified sources.
“We advise citizens to remain vigilant, cross-check all communications, and depend only on our verified channels for accurate information,” Maiwada said.
Reiterating the Comptroller-General’s commitment, he assured that the NCS would continue to expose and prosecute individuals attempting to compromise the Service through deception.