Politics

The many sins of suspended NIS boss, Paradang

Published

9 years ago

August 21, 2015

In from Enite Benjamin …
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday suspended the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) David Parradang, and ordered him to immediately hand over to a Deputy Comptroller General in the service, Martin Abeshi.
A statement by the Director of Press, Ministry of Interior, Alhaji Yusuf Isiaka on the suspension read, “The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. David Parradang, has been suspended from office with immediate effect.
“Meanwhile, the Deputy Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr. Martin Kure Abeshi, who is the most senior officer has been directed to take over the affairs of the office.”
Many agree that it was an action that was expected sooner than later, given the number of illegalities and irregularities that have accompanied his tenure.
A major blemish of Parandang’s tenure was the national embarrassment and outrage of 2014 when about 20 applicants seeking recruitment into the service died during a recruitment test at examination centres in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Minna, Gombe, and Benin.
About 6.5 million who applied for the 4,000 vacant slots were made to each pay N1, 000 application fee.
Parradang had denied culpability for the incident and blamed the then Minister of Interior, Abba Moro whom he said conducted the exercise without carrying the NIS along.
The administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan subsequently set up a presidential panel to probe the incident with a mandate to also employ the relations of deceased applicants into the immigration service.
Moro was however not sanctioned for the incident and a probe by the Senate did not see the light of the day as the report was not tabled for debate.

The Senate on its part set up a probe panel into the matter but nothing came out of it.
Soon after the Buhari took over, the NIS was involved in another recruitment scandal. There were allegations that the service under Paradang’s watch had secretly carried out recruitment of over 1,000 officers into the service in violation of due process, which a source described as a “grave error”.
However, another statement also dated August 21, 2015 and signed by a director/secretary in the ministry in charge of Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board, Mr A.A. Ibrahim, specifically gave official explanations on why the immigration boss was suspended.
He said Parradang’s major sins, according to the ministry’s statement, were that he issued letters of appointment of 700 assistant inspectors of Immigration and 900 Immigration Assistants lll into the Nigeria Immigration Service without approval.
The embattled Immigration boss was also accused of refusing to take necessary measures to correct the alleged wrongdoing, despite repeated advice given to him by the Ministry, which was said to have been conveyed to him through several letters with reference nos FMI/PSO/OOl/lll/402 of June 11, 2015, and FMI/PSO/OOl/lll/411 of June 14, 2015.
The statement said “having considered the above mentioned acts committed by you to mean deliberate to the extant laws, insubordination to constituted authority and improper behaviour inimical to the service that is unbecoming of a public officer, l am to inform you that you have been suspended from office with immediate effect. While you await further instruction, you are to hand over the affairs of your office to the most senior officer in the Nigeria Immigration Service. Please accept the well wishes of the permanent secretary”.
A source familiar with the development said the affected officers were hired through a committee instead of allowing the Customs and Immigration Board to do so.
Said the presidency source: “The officers were recruited after President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration took over. When the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior drew his attention to the violation of due process, he claimed that there was an approval he got from ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
“He also insisted that the ex-President directed him to use a committee to conduct the recruitment instead of the Customs and Immigration Board. He completely sidelined the board.
“And when the Permanent Secretary of the Interior Ministry asked him to withdraw the recruitment, he ignored the directive. He said he would not reverse ex-President Jonathan’s instruction.
“The Permanent Secretary officially reported the suspended CG to President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Instead of acting unilaterally, the President insisted on due process. He said the suspended CG should be queried. Upon rendering an unsatisfactory answer, Parradang was suspended.”
There were also reports, that Parradang’s suspension might have been propelled further by the ongoing investigations into how a Lebanese terrorist, Ahmed Al Assir was given a Nigerian visa by the Nigerian embassy in Beruit, Lebanon.
Assir, who had been on the wanted list of Lebanese security forces, was arrested at the airport last week while attempting to visit Cairo, Egypt, en route to Nigeria on a forged Palestinian passport.
He was accused of involvement in the death of 17 Lebanese soldiers and was sentenced to death by the court in 2013. The embassy in Lebanon had denied culpability, saying the fugitive did not apply to the Mission for visa, stressing that the Nigerian visa on his fake Palestinian passport was forged.

Checks indicate that with the suspension of the immigration boss, other officials involved in the visa processing at the Nigerian embassy in Lebanon would be heavily sanctioned, including the Nigerian ambassador to Lebanon, Amos Oluwole.
Before the hammer fell on him, Parradang had reportedly said that there were no immigration officials at the embassy in Lebanon.
“We don’t have immigration officers in that country. We understand that the president has ordered investigation into it, so we are waiting for the outcome of the investigation,” he was quoted to have said.
This was even as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Alhaji Garba Shehu, on Wednesday revealed that preliminary investigations indicated that the wanted radical preacher al-Assir got his Nigerian visa through a normal application.
Garba in a statement said, “Any claim linking the man to the Nigerian government must be regarded as born out of mischief. Our missions attend to all applications. Once an application meets the basic conditions, there is very little that the visa issuing officials can do, especially since he was using a false identity.”
“The government is awaiting the report of the investigation, but preliminary reports show that the applicant’s manifest documents raised no suspicion. There was nothing extra-ordinary about the application. If he had applied as a tourist or as an investor, there would be little for the visa officials to suspect that the applicant was a terrorist.” he said

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