ISIS: Buhari suspends Immigration boss

Comptroller General, Nigeria Immigration Service, David

Shikfu Parradang | credits: http://www.immigration.gov.ng

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.
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