Jonathan recruited 1600 into Immigration, not Parradang – NIS Senior Officers

Senior officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has reacted to the suspension of Comptroller-General of Immigration, David Shikfu Parradang, by stating that he did not approve the recruitment of 1,600 officers to the Service.

In a statement signed by Comrade S Audu and titled: “A STATEMENT FROM CONCERNED SENIOR IMMIGRATION OFFICERS” they stated that the immediate past president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, constituted a Board that oversaw the recruitment of the officers, noting that, Parradang did not have the powers to approve such recruitment.


They noted that President Muhammadu Buhari was not properly briefed of the process that led to the failed recruitment, adding that, Parradang was only used as a bait, same as previous Comptroller-Generals.

Read full statement below:
“Still on Suspension of Parradang of NIS…Setting the Record Straight”

The recent suspension of CGI David Shikfu Parradang OFR, mni as the Comptroller-General of Immigration with effect from 21 August 2015, is a matter that has been generating rhetorics and innuendoes in the information space. It is a development that has set so many tongues wagging and the self-styled puritans who are known for prancing on public issues and hurling uninformed analyses have yet got another assignment on their hands. But before anybody will be in a haste to take the Service to the guillotine, nay the allegedly “erring” Comptroller-General, we have considered it a deserving duty of overriding public importance to set the record straight and educate Nigerians on clear position of things. Nigeria Immigration Service has not been in the news for negative reasons over the years except for details that will be laid bare in this treatise.

The NIS as an entity is under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior through an organ known as Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Board (CDFIPB). For a paramilitary outfit that should enjoy a reasonable measure of autonomy, the relationship between the NIS and the above mentioned supervisory organ has not been rosy. And this can be traceable to the disgraceful manner successive Comptrollers-General have left office. Over the years, the major source of conflict is the issues bordering on recruitment, promotion and posting in the Service. As earlier stated the NIS is one of the agencies under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior, through the CDFIPB. However, the NIS has a legal instrument (Immigration Act 1963, reviewed in 2015) that regulates its functions. Whereas the Immigration Act and Immigration manual regulate the daily operational activities of the Nigeria Immigration Service the Board’s Act takes care of policy matters of all the agencies in the Board such as Prisons, Civil Defence and the Fire Service .

With regards to appointment, promotion and discipline, Section 4(2), CAP 12 Immigration and Prisons Board Act, LFN of 1986, states thus: The Board shall have power –
a. To appoint persons to hold or act in all the offices in the affected Services, including power to make appointments on promotion or transfer and to confirm appointments; and
b. To dismiss and exercise other disciplinary control over persons appointed pursuant to paragraph (a) of this subsection.

Section 4(3) of this Act however set the clear limit on the power of the Board in the following words “The power conferred on the Board under subsection (2) of this section, shall notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other enactment, include the power to appoint and exercise disciplinary control over –

a. The Director (Comptroller-General) of Immigration; and
b. The Director (Comptroller-General) of the Prisons Service.

That the recent letter of suspension of the Comptroller General reference CDFIPB/IMM/348/Vol.I/54 dated 21st August 2015 and signed by one AA Ibrahim, Director/Secretary is at variance with the letters and intention of the provisions of section 4(3) of the Board’s Act is not contestable. In the letter the signatory claimed to be directed to issue the letter by a supposedly superior authority which normally should be the Presidency but signed the said letter for and on behalf of himself. This is not only curious but quite unusual of Federal Civil Service practice. The whole exercise borders on someone usurping the power he never had to issue such a letter especially to a chief executive who was appointed by the President and Commander-in-Chief.

To say that the relationship between the NIS and the Board has not been cordial is simply stating the obvious. In the recent past, especially during the tenure of CJ Udeh, OFR, (2005 – 2010), the struggle for the control of the soul of the NIS by the Ministry/Board have been so tense to the extent that successive Comptroller-Generals virtually struggled to run their offices due to the overbearing interferences of the officials of the Ministry/Board in the day to day running of the service. At a point, it got to a ridiculous extent that Comptrollers-General of the NIS were requested to submit staff posting order to the Ministry/Board for vetting or reasons best known to them. Any staff deployment exercise especially foreign posting that does not accommodate at least 70% of the powerful members of the Board/Ministry would not be accepted.

Any Comptroller General, who does otherwise, would be charged with insubordination and improper behaviour to constituted authority even when it is obvious that the candidates of these powerful Board members are not in any way qualified for such vital deployments.

CJ Udeh’s tenure can be described as the brightest chapter in the annals of NIS relationship with the Board. And this can be attributed to two reasons: the then President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR understood the peculiar dynamics associated with the administration of the military and paramilitary institutions such as the NIS. He gave the Comptroller-General a clear mandate to restructure and reposition the Service and went further to complement same with the appointment of Gen. Godwin Abbe (Rtd) as Honorable Minister of Interior/Chairman of the Board. The truth of the matter is that CJ Udeh wouldn’t have succeeded if he were to be subjected to unnecessary administrative bottlenecks inherent in the Board.

That a Comptroller-General of the NIS will be expected to get approval from the Board/Ministry to deploy staff literally means that he/she is just a figurehead. That a CGI cannot even effect urgent operational changes and grant media interview without clearance from the Ministry/Board in 21st century Nigeria is not only laughable, but also at variance with the provision of the Freedom Of Information Act 2011.


It is no longer news that the Comptroller General of Immigration, David S. Parradang, OFR, mni has been suspended because of alleged violation of extant laws as enunciated by the CDFIP Board. What is news however, is that the Board is in a hurry to make Nigerians forget the genesis and the roles they played in the recruitment debacle of March 15, 2014. However, Nigerians are wise people; they know the story.

They know that some persons who are still walking free on the streets of this country collected N1000 from each of the over 700,000 Nigerian job seekers in the botched exercise of 15 March, 2014 during which 15 young Nigerians paid the supreme price with their blood and tens of others got various degrees of injuries. Public outcry rented the whole atmosphere. The senate of the 7th Assembly waded into the matter but because those who swindled the young Nigerians and even killed some in the most shameful recruitment exercise were so powerful, the senate report never saw the light of the day even up till date. Even the presidential directives on them to refund the blood money of #1000:00 collected from young job seekers remained ignored.