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By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
A transparency group, Niger Delta for Good Governance and Accountability (NDGGA) has faulted the recent appointment of Caroline Wuraola Adepoju as the acting Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), asking President Bola Tinubu to review her appointment and return the NIS on the part of probity and accountability.
According to the NDGGA, despite the “recent desperate extension of her service as comptroller general for three months, the last minute appointment of Caroline Wuraola Adepoju as the acting comptroller general of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) by the former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola is a slap on the service, a bad precedence and a show of executive irresponsibility.”
The NDGGA, in a statement signed by its national coordinator, Comrade Jolade Ken-Orue, said though the Nigeria Immigration Service is a vital component of the national security architecture, “the appointment of Caroline Wuraola Adepoju as acting comptroller despite the fact that she is supposed to be on retirement after serving 35 years looking for extension, has hampered promotions, encouraged indiscipline, lawlessness and insubordination.”
The group stated that during a working tour of NIS commands in the South-West, North-East and South-South, in order to encourage transparency and probity in the production of passport booklets, “the prevailing complaints was the disservice done to the service with the appointment of Caroline Wuraola Adepoju despite being second on the retirement list of the service. Same was with DCG Dupe Anyalechi that refused to go on retirement during the last days of Aregbesola in office. She got extension heading passport and making the passport process a hellish experience, yet she was extended twice, and later taken to Interior Ministry to connive in the infamous office of SA to Minister of Immigration Matters. She finally exited with Aregbesola, and now another extension for an already retiring DCG. Soon the least rank will follow their foot step.
“This is against ethics and rules as provided in the laws setting up the NIS. In the Immigration Act, 2015, Article 8 section 3(1) states that upon retirement of the Comptroller-General, the President shall appoint from among serving officers of the service on recommendation of the board. But the NIS is being rubished by the fact that a Deputy Comptroller General that her service expired on the 31st of May,2023 was appointed by Rauf Aregbesola in a blizzard manner backdating the ill conceived appointment to the 26th May, 2023 which was done without a presidential approval
“The beauty of any uniform service is career progression, promotion of officers as at when due, alongside their coursemates, colleagues and peers, not selective, discriminatory, hand picking of officers, merit no longer counts, dignity of labour and value for experience no longer prevail, hence a far, far, junior will catch up with his or her superior or senior and no more complements or respect. The Nigeria Immigration Service as a regimented service is being disrupted, distorted and disoriented, officers are no longer feeling safe nor comfortable with the job security,” he said.
The NDGGA however called on the National Assembly and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to save the NIS and other military institutions “from disrepute by reviewing the faulty and desperate attempt to scuttle the ideals behind the setting up of the Nigerian Immigration service and reverse the disgraceful appointment of Caroline Wuraola Adepoju as Acting Comptroller General.”
