President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly suspended David Parradang, the comptroller general of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).
David Parradang
Parradang was asked to proceed on suspension on August 21, Friday, while Martin Abeshi, the service’s deputy comptroller general, takes over.
Femi Adesina, the presidential spokesman, has disclosed that the suspension of Paradang was not connected with the probe of how the ISIS leader got the Nigerian visa.
Adesina said in a text message the comptroller general of the NIS was suspended over unauthorized recruitment into immigration service. Moreover, the official was also indicted in the recruitment scandal which led to the death of job applicants.
It would be recalled that the immigration service under his leadership sparked national outrage in 2014 after nearly 20 job applicants died in stampede during an immigration recruitment test.
Ahead of the examinations, an agent commissioned by the ministry of interior, extorted N1000 from each of over 700,000 applicants.
Despite raising nearly a N1 billion, logistics for the exercise were bad resulting in the deaths.
Parradang denied any role in the contract and insisted that Abba Moro, the interior minister, handled the deal.
Although the Senate launched an investigation into the matter, it ended without a report till date.
Meanwhile, there is an apparent air of fear and paranoia in the NIS over the issuance of visa to ISIS leader, Ahmed Al Assir, who was arrested by Lebanese security operatives while he was on his way to Nigeria.
President Buhari has already ordered relevant agencies to explain how a wanted terrorist was found with a valid Nigerian passport.
