NIS senior officers claim he was suspended wrongly

In the statement, obtained from Linda Ikeji’s blog, they claimed he was suspended wrongly.

Presenting their case, they said: “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.”

Talking about the recruitment of personnel, the said after the recruitment debacle of March 15, 2014, “The Federal Government led by the former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR was shaken to its foundations. A rescue mission was embarked on, upon the realization that some cronies at the Board have not only swindled these young Nigerians, but also sent them to their early graves for the job they never got.

A Committee known as The Presidential Committee to Assist in Immigration Recruitment was constituted on 26th March, 2014 by the former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR. The membership of that committee includes;

1. The Chairman Federal Civil Service Commission (Chairman)

2. The Permanent Secretary (General Services) OSGF

3. The Comptroller- General of Immigration

4. The Representative of the Inspector General of Police

5. The representative of the DG Department of State Services

6. The representative of the Corps Marshal FRSC

7. The representative of the Commandant General Civil Defense Corps

8. The representative of the Controller- General Prisons

9. The representative of the Attorney General of the Federation

10. The representative of D G, Federal Character Commission

11. The representative of the Head of Service

The terms of reference of this Committee as signed by the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim includes;

i. To liaise with the Board to confirm the actual number of personnel to be recruited

ii. To assist the Board by advertising the recruitment with a view to starting the process afresh

iii. To assist the Board by processing the application, short listing of potential applicants and conducting necessary interviews for the purpose of the recruitment exercise

iv. To assist the Board by following all relevant laws, Public Service Rules and guidelines to determine successful applicants and announce their appointment into the NIS

v. To ensure that three family members of each deceased applicant from the aborted exercise, at least one of whom should be a female are given immediate and automatic appointment

vi. To ensure that all those injured are given immediate and automatic appointment in the NIS.

The Presidential Committee got into action and advertisement for job vacancies was placed in various media platforms. CGI Parradang was neither the chairman of the Committee nor the Secretary but just an ordinary member whose central concern was to make any useful contributions that would remove the NIS which he headed from public ridicule occasioned by the botched March 15, 2014 recruitment fraud organized and supervised by the Board/Ministry."

Adding that "The Committee deployed the Computer- Based Test (CBT) option for selection of candidates and this culminated in the enlistment of about 1600 recruits through a much better process than the botched March 15, 2014 recruitment exercise. All these were of junior rank of which the enabling laws of the land (PSR 020103) allow the Comptroller General as the head of the extra ministerial agency to recruit.”