Jonathan Approves Immigration Boss’s Retirement

President Goodluck Jonathan has approved that the Comptroller-General of Immigration (NIS), Mrs Rose Uzoma, should proceed on a pre-retirement leave.

The approval is contained in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja and signed by a director in the Ministry of Interior, Mr R. Attahiru.

“I am to further convey that you are to handover the duties and responsibilities of your office on or before Wednesday, January 16, to the most senior Deputy Comptroller-General of Immigration in the person of Rilwan Bala Musa,” the statement said.

It said that Musa would act as Comptroller-General of Immigration pending the appointment of a substantive Comptroller-General.

“On behalf of the Minister of Interior and all members of the board, I wish to thank you for your service to Nigeria.

“The board wishes you good luck in your future endeavor,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, has appealed to the media and members of the public not to drag the Presidency in the myriad of controversy surrounding the postings and recruitment in the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).

Moro, who disclosed this at the weekend, while addressing journalists on the allegation that he influenced both the recruitment and postings in the NIS, said neither President Goodluck Jonathan nor any member of his family submitted names for the purported recruitment exercise in the Immigration.

He wondered why what he described as a honest decisions of public servants would be given ethno-religious interpretation even to the extent of maligning the name of the President.

“All recruitment into all the Services in the Ministry of Interior are based on guidelines for appointment, promotion and discipline for use in Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board (CDFIPB) and approved by the Federal Character Commission (FCC).

“Let me state at this juncture that neither the Presidency nor the First Lady nor any member of the First family submitted any names for recruitment into the NIS or any service in the Ministry of Interior for that matter,” Moro stated.

“Let me, therefore, appeal to the media to please keep the institution of the Presidency out of what is fast becoming a norm in Nigeria in which the institution of the Presidency is dragged into all manner of discourse in the name of opposition to achieve cheap political points. In the interest of the NIS and Nigeria, I make this passionate appeal that the tendency to aspire to tribal, ethnic or sectional motives to all actions of honest public servants must stop,” he urged.

Asked to clarify the discordant tunes between him and the former Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mrs. Rose Chinyere Uzomah, over the cancellation of the alleged recruitment exercise, the minister stressed that he would not like to join issues with anybody.

He disclosed that his decision to cancel the process leading to the recruitment exercise was based on an interim report, adding: “I don’t want to join issues with anybody…if the exercise has not started then nothing has been cancelled.”

“I had an interim report that publication have started coming up in Newspapers concerning the exercise and that Nigerians are being worried about the process to the extent that personal motives are being imprinted on it…the Board has to recommend that it be put on hold. I don’t have any intelligent report that any secret recruitment is going on in the NIS. Whatever has been done has been through an open door policy,” he noted.

The minister, however, promised to investigate the allegation as well punish those found guilty of spreading such information within the ranks of the immigration service.

He said: “Pandering to the sentiments of disgruntled, misguided and mischievous individuals in and outside the NIS can only be counter-productive. Let me remind us that as public servants we must know when not to cross the red line.