Heads will roll in Nigeria immigration as top officers are pencilled for retirement with appointment of new Comptroller-General
Topmost officers in the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), are said to have been gripped by fear and anxiety over an alleged plan by the Federal Government carry out mass retirement in the agency.
According to sources, the planned mass retirement, expected to take place before the end of this week, is a consequence of recent appointments by the current administration of President Bola Tinub, which have been greeted by criticisms in certain concerned quarters.
Among such appointments are those of the immediate past Comptroller General of Immigration (CGI), Mrs Wuraola Adepoju and the incumbent, Mrs Kemi Nandap.
Kemi Nandap
In the exercise, Adepoju, whose tenure expires on February 29, 2024 will be succeeded by Nandap as Comptroller General with effect from March 1, 2024.
Critics of the these appointments have alleged that the provisions of the Unified Conditions of Service for Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Fire Service, Nigeria Immigration and Nigerian Prison Services, 2019 were violated.
They note, for instance, that Chapter 3.1.2 of the Unified Conditions of Service, dealing with appointments, states that: “Appointment of Heads of the Services shall be on recommendation of the Board and approval of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation, from among the servicing officers of not less than Assistant Comptroller/Controller/Commandant General. Such officers shall have not less that eighteen (18) months before retirement.”
One of the issues raised against the recent appointment is that Adepoju was appointed on the eve of her retirement as acting CGI on June 1, 2023, while Nandap has less than 18 months to retire from the service.
Nandap (an Ogun indigene married to a Plateau man) will retire on October 10, 2024, having enlisted in the service in 1989.
It was gathered that the palpable anxiety within the Immigration Service, may have to do, not just with the alleged illegality of Nandap’s appointment as Comptroller General of the Immigration Service in apparent breach of the extant regulation, but also because of the grand plan to retire officers at the top rung of the ladder who are Nandap’s juniors by virtue of her year of enlistment-1989.
Nandap, who was a Deputy Comptroller General of Immigration before her appointment as acting Comptroller General of Immigration effective March 1, was number six on the list of officers and men who were due for retirement in 2024.
She had ahead of her two Deputy Comptrollers General of Immigration who will be expected to retire because they were her senior. It was learnt that there was a push to get all the Deputy Comptrollers General of Immigration to retire voluntarily before Nandap assumes office on March 1, 2024.
Sources close to the service said there were five Deputy Comptrollers General of Immigration who were her juniors and whose retirement will be on the same date as her retirement, that is October 10, 2024, save one from the Southeast, who as learnt, enlisted in the Immigration Service in 1991, which gives her about three more years in the service.
But it was gathered that they had all been slated for immediate retirement for inexplicable reasons.
There were insinuations of a plot to ease out officers in that position to make it easy for Nandap’s tenure that is due to terminate on October 10, 2024 to be extended by President Tinubu on the recommendation of the Board of Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB) under the chair of the Minister of Interior, Hon Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
This possibility is already being opposed in the Service with a subtle advocacy being sent across to the Presidency to guard against the inherent injustice in the purported plot to effect a blanket retirement of all the Deputy Comptrollers-General of Immigration at this intersection,
Secretary to the Board of CDCFIB, Jafaru Ahmed, was purported to have directed the affected subordinate officers to tender their letter of voluntary retirement.
The affected senior Immigration officers, as learnt, however refused to do so on Tuesday when they were contacted by the Board Secretary.
Those knowledgeable about the development told one of our correspondents that while it is the norm for senior officers to be retired once their subordinates are appointed to head the services in which they serve, the rationale for retiring or planning to retire subordinates of new service chiefs remains largely inexplicable.
The NIS, like the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC), the Federal Fire Service, and the Nigerian Prison Services (now known as Nigerian Correctional Service), are parastatals under the Ministry of Interior.
Attempts by NATIONAL ACCORD to reach the Secretary to the Board of CDCFIB, Jafaru Ahmed and the Public Relations Officer of the NIS to comment on the matter were unsuccessful.
