President Muhammadu Buhari has suspended the Comptroller General of
Nigeria Immigration Service, David Parradang, with immediate effect.
This is contained in a statement signed by the Director of Press,
Federal Ministry of Interior, Mr. Yusuf Isiaka Alhaji, on behalf of the
permanent secretary of the ministry on Friday in Abuja.
NE 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..
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.
It wasgathered 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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