David Parradang: suspended as Comptroller General

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.

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.

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.

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 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.
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.

The current fight that led to the suspension of the CGI began when the Board called on him to cancel the entire recruitment exercise done by the presidential committee. He told them clearly that he has no such unilateral power to annul the outcome of an exercise of that magnitude because other members of the committee need to be consulted. The real truth about the Board’s position is not unconnected with the fact that the exercise did not allow members of the Board to impose their candidates on the CGI to recruit thereby short changing qualified Nigerians.
The Board/Ministry felt that the CGI, DS Parradang, OFR,mni did not carry them along in the exercise. This is not only strange but very illogical because there was no how the CGI would have nominated the representative of the Board to the Presidential Committee of which he was also a nominated member.

The SINS of CGI Parradang in the court of the Board/Ministry are not unconnected with his consistent calls for the adherence to proper procedures and practices in the relationship between the Board/Ministry and the NIS. On 27th May, 2015, and towards the end of the last administration, the Board forwarded three different lists of 30 Specially Promoted Officers of the NIS. The CGI raised opposition to the lists pointing out that his inputs on any of the so called specially promoted officers were not sought by the Board as required by the Board’s Guidelines on Special Promotion. In the accompanying letter, signed by AA Ibrahim, the CGI was directed to issue promotion letters to the eight affected junior personnel implying the Board’s belated recognition that the CGI was supposed to be carried along in the first place. The letter reads in parts thus; “in the exercise of your delegated responsibility, your are expected to conduct the production and issuance of the individual officers’ letters of promotion”

The Board/Ministry overseeing the NIS as constituted today is nothing but a group of businessmen in Public Service whose ‘gods’ must be appeased before any Comptroller General of Immigration or personnel of NIS can get his/her legitimate privileges. You must bribe your ways to get promoted as a senior officer and you must be highly connected to somebody in the Board to be posted to any “juicy” formations in the NIS. These among others are the evils that Parradang fought gallantly against the Board. Unfortunately, with their half-truths the Board was able to mislead the Presidency to secure Parradang’s suspension. The truth about the rot in NIS is that it has nothing to do with Parradang as an individual but the NIS as a critical stakeholder in the security architecture of the country.

In many serious minded countries, the heads of their Homeland/Interior Ministries are usually persons with robust military/ paramilitary background who have acceptable understanding about how to run any security institution.

Nigeria must begin to think in this direction because former Comptrollers General of the NIS such as SA Dange, RC Uzoma and now DS Parradang got hooked in the dirty traps of the Board/ Ministry. The result is that the nation suffers for it. That Parradang, a consummate officer and a trained member of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) is alleged to have overstepped his boundaries in a service he has worked for over 32 years is keenly watching how this suspension works out. This just scene One, we are waiting anxiously for scene Two.





http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/08/25/jonathan-recruited-1600-into-immigration-not-parradang-nis-senior-officers/

ok

This one na epistle o, what's wrong with creating employment Buhari na Monkey

The first I didn't bother to read

Buhari is acting on a script delivered to him by Joda committee.

The President thinks Jonathan's administration was illegitimate hence everything about him should be erased from annals of history.

I warned everyone who cared to listen before the election that Gen Buhari has zero experience in democratic governance and as such will embark on trial and/by error thereby embarrassing the country before the international community.

To think that President Buhari will go it all without advisers and ministers that should have complemented him in this enormous task is preposterous.

The Ahmed Joda transition committee has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately terminate all dubious appointments made by former President Goodluck Jonathan in the last nine months, and review all contracts awarded by the administration in the last 18 months.



Source: http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/185814-exclusive-joda-committee-to-buhari-sack-jonathans-last-minutes-appointees-review-contracts-of-last-18-months.html

for now poeple should pls stop naming their child any thing near Jonathan or Goodluck for now till the name go under serious sanctification, I HATE ANYTHING ABOUT GEJ

Hmmmm...

Hey

Buhari néed to reinstate this guy. Moro should instead be picked up for prosecution. Paradang was not privy to that recruitment and the guy made it clear during the saga that the ministry of Interior handled the recruitment not Immigration. Mr President should correct this ill informed action.

kulikuli26:
Buhari néed to reinstate this guy. Moro should instead be picked up for prosecution. Paradang was not privy to that recruitment and the guy made it clear during the saga that the ministry of Interior handled the recruitment not Immigration. Mr President should correct this ill informed action.

But I hope the Recruitment won't be Cancelled though

powerfulsettingz:
for now poeple should pls stop naming their child any thing near Jonathan or Goodluck for now till the name go under serious sanctification, I HATE ANYTHING ABOUT GEJ

You are a FOOL!

And Jonathan singlehandedly did that right? liar

WailingWailer00:
[s]This one na epistle o, what's wrong with creating employment Buhari na Monkey[/s]

Nothing wrong. But if the employment did not follow due process, a lot will be wrong with it as genuine candidates will be denied employment.

Your highly qualified cousin or relative may even be affected.

Let us all support things been done the right way with openness, fairness and equity.

Due to the botched 1st NIS recruitment, some cabals used the 2nd more quiet recruitment to perpetrate some under dealings.

agabusta:



Nothing wrong. But if the employment did not follow due process, a lot will be wrong with it as genuine candidates will be denied employment.

Your highly qualified cousin or relative may even be affected.

Let us all support things been done the right way with openness, fairness and equity.

Due to the botched 1st NIS recruitment, some cabals used the 2nd more quiet recruitment to perpetrate some under dealings.

All the useless appointments he's dishing to northerners nko, Jonathan own small

agabusta:



Nothing wrong. But if the employment did not follow due process, a lot will be wrong with it as genuine candidates will be denied employment.

Your highly qualified cousin or relative may even be affected.

Let us all support things been done the right way with openness, fairness and equity.

Due to the botched 1st NIS recruitment, some cabals used the 2nd more quiet recruitment to perpetrate some under dealings.

Bros, the problem is that the Officers and The Board couldn't perpetrate any under dealings, cos of the Computer-based exam, and so most of their Candidates did not get the Job