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Tag: Parradang

  • NIS appoints new PRO

    NIS appoints new PRO

    The new management of the Nigeria immigration Service (NIS) on Tuesday in Abuja announced Deputy Comptroller Ekpedeme King as the new spokesperson of the Service.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that King is to take over from Assistant Comptroller Chukuemeka Obua, who has been redeployed to the Lagos Command.

    Until his deployment, King was the second-in-Command at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

    The posting is contained in a staff posting order vide NIS/ABJ/1027/VV/T111/562 dated Sept. 2, 2015.

    The new spokesperson told NAN after a brief handover ceremony on Tuesday in Abuja that the Public Relations Unit would be repositioned to enhance professionalism.

    He thanked the outgoing PRO for all the support and charged other officers of the unit to work as a team in the course of their duty.

    He also called on journalist and media organisations to support the new administration in its bid to reposition the NIS in line with the change agenda of the Federal government.

    It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had on August, 27 announced Mr. Martin Abeshi as the new Comptroller-General (CG) of the NIS following the suspension of the former NIS CG, Mr. David Parradang.

  • NIS tragedy: We obeyed ministers’ order, says Comptroller

    NIS tragedy: We obeyed ministers’ order, says Comptroller

    Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), David Parrandang, Thursday told the Senate that he simply obeyed the last order in the ill fated NIS recruitment exercise.

    Parradang consistently said that the NIS was never the “driver” of the recruitment process but simply complied with directives as given by the Ministry of Interior.

    The Immigration boss noted that throughout his years in the Service nobody had ever taken away the power of the NIS to recruit operatives of the Service from levels 1-7.

    He also told the committee that he was opposed to the collection of money from applicants.

    The Comptroller said that he also advised that the exercise be staggered and to adopt state of origin.

    He said that on the 9th of September, 2013 the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prison Services Board placed advertisements in some national dailies for appointments into the Superintendent, Inspectorate and Immigration Assistant cadres.

    He noted that the advert was signed by the then Board Secretary, Dr. Attahiru.

    “I immediately placed a call to the Secretary that I am not aware that the Board met on this issue. I also placed a call to the Permanent Secretary too whether there was any decision of the Board to place an advert in the papers.

    “I also placed a call to the two Commissioners that are seated before you here whether they were aware that the Board met and agreed for a publication to be made to recruit in the Service, but they all answered in the negative,” Parradang told the lawmakers.

    The Immigration boss said that he wrote the then Secretary to express “my dismay that as a stakeholder, as the head of a Service that is supposed to recruit, I was not aware of this exercise.”

    Parradang said that the Secretary pleaded with him that “I should understand with him that he was under immense pressure to put up the advert.”

    Parradang quoted Dr. Attahiru to have said “I should not write the letter but I said no, this is an official matter it is not an issue to do with Mr. David Parradang but with the Nigeria Immigration Service.”

    He added, “So I wrote him a letter that I was not given any benefit of a reply till way back in October when he had been removed from the Ministry. Along the line we were asked to look for funding and I had to look for funding for this exercise from the office of the Director General of Budget.

    “I wrote him a letter that we have waiver from the Federal Civil Service Commission to recruit 4,556 operatives of the Nigeria Immigration Service.

    “He told me categorically that Government was very conscious of overheads and there would be no money made available for it. I thought he was just being reluctant.

    “So I kept pressurizing him. I went to that office practically every day for the whole of that week and subsequent weeks.

    “The last concession I got from him is that I should wait that maybe it would be captured in the 2014 budget.

    “So along the line, the Committee of the Board met, we discussed this issue of Drexel (consultant) being the service provider and I said look, I am not in support of anybody collecting money for recruitment.

    “I remember very clearly during that meeting where the two Commissioners were, I told them that I read in the papers that in Niger State there was recruitment and people were meant to pay and there was a lot of outcry in that state and the Governor had to step in and cancelled it.

    “I said look we may go this line gentlemen if we don’t take time. But we kept going and we had no other board meeting to my knowledge till when the Secretary called us to the Steering Committee Meeting in January.

    “I told them that it is advisable for us to stagger the exercise and to go by states of origin. But when we appeared before this Committee of the Senate to in one of the committee rooms here, we were all seated here and we got to know that we will be conducting recruitment examinations on the 15th of March, 2014.

    “That was the first day I heard that. I did not hear from any board; there was no board meeting to that effect.

    ‘As a man in uniform you obey the last order.

    “Subsequently, everybody that asked me when is Immigration recruitment, before then I used to tell them that I don’t know but subsequently anybody that asks me I will reply that the Honourable Minister has declared categorically that we will recruit on the 15th of March and that is what we are going to stick to.

    “Then I sent the DCG Human Resources to attend all subsequent meetings and when it came to the issue of funding he told me that they have made a budget of N212million to be used for that exercise.

    “I asked him where the money will come from, knowing that Immigration does not have such money. He said it is expected that the company should pay for it. I said okay, go and take representatives of the Service Provider to the Honourable Minister of Interior maybe he would have funding for the exercise.

    “He told me there was none till about on 13th of March 2014 when N45million was made available for him to carry out that exercise.

    “We were left with the option of having to mobilize all our officers in the State Commands to attend to the recruitment exercise. We sent bulk SMS to all of them saying look gentlemen this is the day we have to work with.

    “All of them kept calling me to ask how they were going to get money to do this exercise? I told them if any money is given to me I will make it available to you.

    “No money was made available to the Nigerian Immigration Service and the exercise was supposed to be conducted.

    “If you notice too there was no advertisement giving clear guidelines on how to go about it until the 14th of March that people were asked to go to the various centres for the tests.

    ”I will like to state that on a state by state basis, the Nigeria Immigration Service is deeply pained about the events that led to loss of lives of 16 people.

    “I want the figures to be corrected. We had seven people that died in the Federal Capital Territory. We had five that died in Rivers State. We had two that died in Niger State. We had one in Bauchi. We had one in Edo. Those are the exact figures.

    ”On the fateful day when we started hearing reports that this was what was happening in the field I came back from Jos and I met the Secretary in his office we sat all through till midnight getting direct reports from each of the State Commands.

    “We had given them clear guidelines on what to do. We asked them to contact the regular stakeholders that we normally meet together like the FRSC, the NSCDC, hospital authorities that they should get people to assist us because this is a short notice thing but on day the crowd was really overwhelming.”

    Asked why he did not stop the exercise, he said, “We were not the drivers of this process at all.

    “So the decision to stop it would never have come from me. I was not the driver of this process and my position had been very clear on this.”

    On why he did not see the tragedy coming, he said, “Of all the capacities that God has given human beings nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow.

    “All of us are optimistic basically. We were of the hope and of the belief that this is a genuine intended activity that nobody would want anybody to lose his life or even get injured. We did not and could not have seen that it was going to fail.”

    He added, “For all my years in the Service, nobody has ever taken away the power to recruit from level one to level seven from the NIS.”

    He said that he protested in writing but was assured that his fears had been taken care off.

    Most of the State Commands of the NIS told the committee that they received only N300, 000 out of N45 million released by the consultant to the Board.

  • Sack Moro and Parradang now

    SIR: We are saddened by the shameful and avoidable loss of innocent lives that characterized the recent recruitment drive by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). Coming on the heels of myriads of deaths, tears and sorrow caused by the activities of Boko Haram in the north, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) wonders why applications that were received several months back could not be handled with greater caution and care and in a timely fashion.

    It is unacceptable that having extorted a thousand naira each from millions of applicants nationwide in the name of processing fees for jobs that are apparently not there, precious lives should in addition be lost in such a cruel manner. A situation where only 4,500 positions are to be filled and applications and extortions are entertained for several millions who would never be considered for placement, smirks of wickedness and gross impunity on the part of the interior ministry and immigration authorities.

    Although President Jonathan has already summoned and queried the duo of the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, David Shikfu Parradang, as well as announcing some palliatives for the victim families, TMG commends all that but wish to add that the duo must be forced to step aside as the best way to placate the families of lost victims. Their mismanagement of the recruitment drive did not just start with the unfortunate deaths, but the moment they approved the N1,000 extortions from millions of innocent job seekers when indeed they know the jobs have been shared – is reprehensible and should be punished.

    TMG believes that the only appropriate way of mourning the dead is to ease the concerned officials out of their respective juicy positions so that they will appreciate the responsibility that go with service.

    Nigerians and their leaders at all levels should begin to emulate the Western countries on the respect and sanctity of life. One life lost in the West must be well-accounted for. A situation where deaths and loss of precious lives are treated as ‘business as usual’ is unfortunate and must be accounted for if not here, but before God Almighty.

    •Comrade Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi & Chief Eddy Ezurike,

    TMG, Kado Estate, Abuja

  • NIS stampede: Jonathan queries Moro, Parradang over deaths

    NIS stampede: Jonathan queries Moro, Parradang over deaths

    President Goodluck Jonathan Monday summoned the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), David Parradang to give explanation why the over 19 job seekers had to die during NIS recruitment exercise at the weekend.

    During the recruitment exercise in cities across the country, among those who died include Abuja (eight), Port Harcourt (five), Minna (three), and Benin (three). Many of the job seekers were also injured during the exercise.

    The deaths were said to have occurred due to stampede resulting from poor crowd management at the centres.

    The duo, who were in the Presidential Villa for over two hours Monday, were led to the President’s office by the Chief of Staff to President Goodluck Jonathan, General Jones Arogbofa.

    They however declined comment on the issue when they were led out from the President’s office by Arogbofa at 2.24pm.

    While the All Progressives Congress (APC) among other stakeholders have condemned the recruitment method which led to the death of the job seekers, others have called for the sack of Moro and Parradang over the issue.

  • Parradang: Taking charge at a time like this

    It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us.”

    These lines from the opening sentence of Charles Dickens’ famous novel, Tales of Two Cities, may just be the apt description of taking up a top security job at the moment, under the present circumstances of our dear country. It is more so true for David S Parradang, a gentleman officer who was recently elevated to the position of Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). It is a moment anybody in a structured organisation hopes and waits for. The sense of fulfilment and joy in attaining the pinnacle of one’s career is unequalled.

    But is this the best of times? Not really. These are times of great challenges. And the NIS, as a very important apparatus in the security structure of our country is far from being immune to the myriad of internal and external challenges bedevilling the system, largely on account of present security challenges. Taking up the NIS top job at this time comes, therefore, with enormous challenges. This, one could say, is the worst of times for it.

    No. It is the best of times because it is the time when true men are figured out from the summation of all men. It is when the waves are tumultuous that a master swimmer is marked from the array of swimmers at the beach. One’s ability at problem solving in a relatively short time and within a difficult situation is a marker of one’s worth.

    Therefore, in spite of the bumps on the thorny path, the coming of Parradang at this critical juncture is an important episode. It could not have been better time. Besides, the aphorism, God’s time is the best is time tested.

    The many challenges before the NIS’s new helmsman could be broadly categorised into two. First is at the organisational level, the internal cries and disconnect. It is only when one sets one’s house in order that one can tackle the other issue; the external challenges.

    In keeping with the current trends in immigration work the world over, there is the need to reposition the NIS for better efficiency and to close all avenues capable of dampening morale of officers and men. In recent past, there have been cases of gross inequality and nepotism in treating officers and men in terms of postings and promotions. The evil of nepotism is rapidly gaining ground in the public sector, unfortunately. But it could be least afforded in security formations where any trace of injustice and inequality among officers could have a devastating effect not only on the organisation, but the country at large. Fairness should therefore be the first step towards building a more dedicated, more efficient Immigration Service.

    In a situation whereby this is sacrificed, laxity, corruption and insubordination will find a comfort zone.

    As a service that holds the key to our nation, the immigration has to be disciplined, corrupt-free and in tandem with global best practice. The first port of call for any visitor to Nigeria is the Immigration Desk of our foreign embassies. Any blot of corruption or inefficiency from those manning such desks would be a huge blemish to the nation. Then comes the entry points. Extortion by men in uniform, NIS personnel inclusive, has for long been a big national embarrassment. Whether under duress or by solicitation, taking money from visitors sends a terrible signal about us as a country. But this ominous culture, like all facets of corruption tearing down the fabric of the country, is too much engrained in the system. However, stopping it would not only boost confidence and respect for the NIS, it will also lessen the severity of our perception as a corrupt country by foreign visitors.

    Now, there is the argument of welfare which some often use, albeit dangerously, to excuse cases of corruption by public servants. While it is not an excuse for corruption, poor welfare has a way of affecting output of workers or their conduct. It should therefore be a priority for the new Comptroller General to make sure that men and officers of the service are well catered for. Incentives for personnel on special assignments, especially at this point in time, will go a long way in gingering them up and for the country to get the best out of them.

    On the other arm of the challenges for the new NIS boss is the general threat posed by the current insurgency in the north. The role Nigerian Immigration Service could play in phasing out the insurgency is paramount. Many an analyst has pointed to the porosity of our borders as a one of the major ambers fuelling the flame of insurgency in the country. It will be Parradang’s major test to make our borders tighter. But this too could be easier said than done as the service is riddled with so many challenges for efficient border security. First is the paucity of personnel, in comparison with the vastness of the border. Secondly, the service is largely analogue in the area of border security.

    However, with a man like Parradang, who has demonstrated so much competence and finesse in his illustrious career, I believe all the challenges are surmountable. As someone who knows him fairly well from his days as Comptroller in Kano, I can vouch for the man’s uprightness, dedication to duty, equity and thoroughness.

    What he would require primarily is the necessary support from all quarters for a more focused immigration.

    • Abdulaziz is a journalist based in Abuja