The Nigeria Customs Service has released names of 247 officers and men of the service who committed various offences and have either been dismissed, demoted, cautioned or forcibly retired.

This is the first time the service would release all the names of its affected officers in one fell swoop.

The list was contained in an internal publication of the service called Monthly Order. The publication which was suspended since 2015 was brought back this month following directives by the Comptroller General of the NCS, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.)

The publication contained names of both past and present officers of the service who had cases to answer since Ali took over as well as officers connected with the various arms importation into the country in the past nine months.

Some online media were said to have mistaken the list for fresh dismissals and punishment by the service but the Public Relations Officer, NCS, Joseph Attah, said that there were no fresh dismissals in the service.

He explained that the list was a literature for internal circulation aimed at keeping officers abreast of relevant information that could be of use to them in the course of their duties.

He said the list was actually longer than what was published, adding, “More information will continue to feature in subsequent editions of the monthly order and it may include more names of persons affected by several management decisions in the past, like promotions or redeployment, retirements, dismissals and other actions that affect the service or its operatives.”