Comptroller General, Nigeria Immigration Service, David Shikfu Parradang
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday
ordered the suspension of the Comptroller-General of Immigration, David
Parradang with immediate effect.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that
Parradang’s suspension might not be unconnected with the ongoing
investigations into how a Lebanese terrorist, Ahmed Al Assir was given a
Nigerian visa by the Nigerian embassy in Beruit, Lebanon.
Parradang was directed to hand over to
the most senior officer, DCG, Martin Kure Abeshi, who had been ordered
to take over the affairs of the service, according to a statement by the
Director of Press, Ministry of Interior, Alhaji Yusuf Isiaka.
The statement on the suspension read,
“The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. David
Parradang, has been suspended from office with immediate effect.
“Meanwhile, the Deputy Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr. Martin
Kure Abeshi, who is the most senior officer has been directed to take
over the affairs of the office.”
President Muhammadu Buhari was reported
on Wednesday to have ordered investigations into how the terrorist got
the Nigerian visa.
Our correspondent had exclusively
reported on Friday that the officials of the NIS and foreign ministry
might be sanctioned seriously, if found to have been negligent in the
course of duty.
Assir, who had been on the wanted list
of Lebanese security forces, was arrested at the airport last week while
attempting to visit Cairo, Egypt, en route to Nigeria on a forged
Palestinian passport.
He was accused of involvement in the
death of 17 Lebanese soldiers and was sentenced to death by the court in
2013. The embassy in Lebanon had denied culpability, saying the
fugitive did not apply to the Mission for visa, stressing that the
Nigerian visa on his fake Palestinian passport was forged.
The embassy, had in a diplomatic brief,
explained that Assir, who was of Palestinian extraction, had undergone
surgery to alter his appearance so as to evade detection by security
operatives.
It stated that the wanted terrorist had
been using aliases to evade arrest, adding that the pseudonym was not on
the watch list of the Lebanese security forces.
Our correspondent gathered that security agencies planned to conduct a DNA testing on Assir to confirm his identity.
Checks indicate that with the suspension
of the immigration boss, other officials involved in the visa
processing at the Nigerian embassy in Lebanon would be heavily
sanctioned, including the Nigerian ambassador to Lebanon, Amos Oluwole.
Before the hammer fell on him, Parradang had reportedly said that there were no immigration officials at the embassy in Lebanon.
“We don’t have immigration officers in
that country. We understand that the president has ordered investigation
into it, so we are waiting for the outcome of the investigation,” he
was quoted to have said.
The immigration service under Parradang
had in 2014 come under scathing criticisms over a recruitment exercise
in which about 20 applicants died and scores injured.
The tragedy occurred at examination centres in the Federal Capital Territory, Port Harcourt, Minna, Gombe, and Benin.
About 6.5 million who applied for the 4,000 vacant slots were made to pay N1, 000 application fee.
Parradang had denied culpability for the
incident and blamed the then Minister of Interior, Abba Moro whom he
said conducted the exercise without carrying the NIS along.
The administration of former president
Goodluck Jonathan subsequently set up a presidential panel to probe the
incident with a mandate to also employ the relations of deceased
applicants into the immigration service.
Moro was however not sanctioned for the
incident and a probe by the Senate did not see the light of the day as
the report was not tabled for debate.
Culled From Punch News
No comments:
Post a Comment