NIS Comptroller General’s Appointment Stirs Controversy As FG Moves To Retire Topmost Officers

Following what is considered as “a controversial appointment” of the new Comptroller General of Immigration Service (NIS), the Federal Government will any moment from today effect the mass retirement of topmost officers in the Service.

The planned mass retirement followed what was described as ‘the rash of illegal’ appointments, made back-to-back by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, of the immediate past Comptroller General of Immigration, Mrs Wuraola Adepoju and the present one, Mrs Kemi Nandap.

Mrs Wuraola Adepoju, whose tenure expires on February 29, 2024 will be succeeded by Nandap as Comptroller General with effect from March 1, 2024.

It was gathered that the appointments violated the provisions of the Unified Conditions of Service for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Fire Service, Nigeria Immigration Service and Nigerian Prison Services, 2019 as the four para-military services are under the Federal Ministry of Interior.

Specifically, chapter 3 of the document, at 3.1.2, under 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, or Commandant General.

It further states that such officers shall have not less that eighteen (18) months before retirement.”

However, it was gathered that whereas Adepoju was appointed on the eve of her retirement as acting Comptroller General of Immigration on June 1, 2023, Nandap (an Ogun indigene who is married to a Plateau man) has less than eighteen months to retire from the service.

Information pieced together indicated that the newly appointed Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Mrs Kemi Nandap is expected to retire on October 10, 2024, having enlisted in the service in 1989.

The development has created a palpable anxiety within the Immigration Service as a result of the manner and abuse of process adopted in the appointment of Nandap which is considered illegal and completely at variance with laid down rules.

A source at the Immigration Service Board said: “It is apparent that the process of Nandap’s appointment as Comptroller General of the Immigration Service was in apparent breach of the extant regulation, but 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 seniors”.

It was also gathered that there was a deliberate 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 enlisted in the Immigration Service in 1991, which gives her about three more years in the service.

However, they had all been slated for immediate retirement for inexplicable reasons just as 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 chairmanship of the Minister of Interior, Hon Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.

However, the move is already being vehemently 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.

The Secretary to the Board of CDCFIB, Jafaru Ahmed, was purported to have directed the affected subordinate officers to tender their letter of voluntary retirement but was met with resistance as those affected refused to comply on Tuesday.

A source at the Board of the CDCFIB told Forefront News on condition of anonymity that the Board is aware that the call for voluntary retirement was not proper as it did not follow laid down rules and regulations.

The source said; “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”.

Attempts made to get the Secretary of the CDCFIB Board to comment on the development did not yield positive result as telephone calls to his number were not responded to.