The Federal Character Commission has filed a four-count criminal charge against the Nigeria Customs Service and its Comptroller-General, Bashir Adeniyi, over alleged breaches of federal character requirements in the Service’s 2025/2026 recruitment exercise.

The charge sheet, obtained by PUNCH Online on Friday, was filed on Thursday at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

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The commission accused the Customs Service and Adeniyi of failing to provide recruitment records, preventing it from monitoring the exercise and disregarding its directive to suspend recruitment and training activities.

In the first count, the FCC alleged that the Service failed to submit its nominal rolls for the 2025 recruitment exercise despite receiving a request in a letter dated March 25, 2026.

It also accused Adeniyi of recklessly, negligently or wilfully allowing the Service to ignore the commission’s request.

The second count alleged that the defendants failed to invite or present themselves for the commission’s monitoring of relevant stages of the 2025/2026 recruitment exercise between September 14 and October 7, 2026.

In the third count, the commission accused the defendants of continuing recruitment and training activities despite receiving a letter dated October 23, 2026, directing the Service to suspend the exercise pending a review.

The FCC further alleged that the Customs Service disregarded the directive, failed to preserve relevant records and denied the commission the opportunity to monitor the process.

The fourth count accused the defendants of failing to provide clear eligibility criteria and comprehensive recruitment guidelines despite repeated requests between January 30 and October 20, 2026.

According to the commission, the failure prevented it from determining the state and zonal distribution of vacancies in the recruitment exercise.

The charges were brought under Section 14(3) of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, etc.) Act, Cap. F7, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, and are punishable under Section 15 of the Act.

The commission listed three witnesses for the case: the Chairman of its Committee on Financial Services, Abdulwasiu K. Bawa-Allah; a committee member, Isa Jibrin Bida; and the committee’s clerk, Usman Yaruwa.

It also listed 14 documents it intends to tender during the trial, including correspondence between the commission and the Customs Service, a report on the Service and records of the FCC’s October 22 press conference.

The prosecution indicated that it could call additional witnesses if considered necessary by the court.

The latest charge follows a disagreement between the commission and the Customs Service over the conduct of the 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, particularly complaints from applicants who claimed they were shortlisted but later excluded from the training programme.

PUNCH had reported on October 23 that the FCC asked the Customs Service to suspend its ongoing recruitment training.

The commission alleged that hundreds of candidates who completed screening and medical examinations were not invited, while some applicants whose names were absent from the published final list allegedly received training invitations.

The commission also questioned whether the recruitment exercise was conducted without its required monitoring and whether the Customs Service obtained a certificate of compliance before issuing training invitations.

The Customs Service had announced that 3,852 candidates were successful out of 573,680 applications received for the 2024/2025 exercise.

The final lists for the Superintendent, Inspectorate and Customs Assistant cadres were published between July 28 and 30, 2026.

However, the Service later disclosed that it had identified screening issues involving 397 applicants and opened a review process following complaints from candidates who were shortlisted but subsequently disqualified.

PUNCH reported on October 19 that Adeniyi ordered a case-by-case reassessment of the complaints.