The Minister of Interior, Mr Abba Moro, on Tuesday tasked the newly appointed Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS, Mr David Parradang, to check corruption and indolence in the service.
Moro gave the order in Abuja when he decorated Parradang with his new rank.
He said that the Federal Government would henceforth not tolerate indolence, negligence and corruption in the immigration service.
Moro said that the ministry would mete out appropriate sanctions against anyone found to have compromised the integrity of the service through the extortion of money from helpless applicants seeking employment into the service.
“You have been selected from among equals; you must carry along all your colleagues and indeed all immigration officers, men and women.
“This government will henceforth not tolerate any acts of indolence, negligence and above all corruption. The tendency to compromise on integrity and extortion of money from hapless applicants for services will henceforth be appropriately sanctioned.
“Any officer who acts in disregard for extant regulations guiding the service, will be dismissed from the service.“
He also challenged the immigration boss to speed up efforts at tackling the security challenges of insurgency and militancy across the country.
“Let me remind you that the country faces the challenge of insurgency and militant activities across the country today, some of which have been traced to illegal and even legal aliens.
“Therefore, let me charge you to take all necessary steps to secure Nigeria’s borders and without prejudice to Nigeria’s relations with any countries.
“Where nationals of any country engages in criminal activities that seek to undermine the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country, they must be summarily and appropriately dealt with.“
The minister congratulated Parradang on his appointment as the new comptroller-general of immigration and assured him of the ministry’s support and cooperation in the discharge of his duty.
Moro also announced the retirement of the immediate past acting Comptroller-General of Immigration, Alhaji Rilwan Musa and four other Deputy Comptroller-Generals (DCGs).
The DCGs retired include Denen Akaa, F. T Mologe, Umar Sulieman, and Kuso Abubakar Khalil.
Responding, Parradang, who hails from Plateau, thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for giving him the opportunity to serve as the Comptroller-General of Immigration Service.
“I would like to give praise and thanks to God because it is the ambition of every career officer to rise to the top of the profession that he is serving.
“And I am particularly very grateful to God Almighty that Mr President has thought me fit to occupy this exalted position of Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service.“
He promised to work with other security agencies to tackle the security challenges being faced by the country.
“Our work has been cut out very clearly for us, we know the concerns of the country now in terms of security, and we are going to really put in our best legs forward to see that the issue of borders, we will address them in conjunction with all other security agencies.
“We are also going to put our own part in the internal security arrangement by getting people who do not have documents to be in the country.
“The irregular people we have to clean them out of this country, so that the country will get some level of peace.“
