Nigeria immigration service to recruit 5, 000 officers

The legacy of former president Goodluck Jonathan lives on as the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has announced plans to recruit 5, 000 personnel to boosts its work force, The Nation reports.

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Officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service during parade.

In a statement issued on Thursday, February 4 by the public relations officer of the service, Ekpedeme Kings, the approval for the recruitment of 5, 000 officers was obtained under the immediate past administration of Jonathan since 2012, but was still pending.

Kings while responding to the alleged recruitment scam in the immigration clarified that the service has not started any fresh recruitment, noting that the service only replaced the over 2, 000 officers that died in Boko Haram attacks in the North East as well as resignation and retirement of officers at the junior cadre in the last few years.

Recall that there was a recent report on a national newspaper earlier this week with the tittle: “NIS in fresh recruitment scam.” The paper reported that the recruitment was allegedly carried out in December, 2015, adding that another recruitment exercise was conducted in December, 2015 and that those recruited have already collected their January 2016 salaries.

But the immigration spokesman denied the report when asked, saying: “We did replacement of over 200 officers. The fact is that Boko Haram has been rioted out of the North-East zone and now for the Army to carry out its operations in other areas it is common knowledge in the country that the para-military, are to continue to take over the areas that have been conquered.

“We should be able to maintain the peace in that area for developmental proposes. The Army will go on with the war, while the paramilitary gives support and also while government is reconstructing the area.
“Because we have not been able to recruit for the past five or six years, due to our failed recruitment exercises we have not been able to have the kind of man power that is needed to carry out this administrative occupation of the North-East zone.

“So that services approached government that so many officers have died in the North East zone, others have retied because they have completed their years of service or on account of age, others have been moved due to several reasons.

“The workforce we are putting to this places are not actually the middle cadre or the senior officers it is the inspectorate that is level 1-7. We have the senior officers that are already there.

“We pleaded with government to replace these people and government considered and government gave the approval. The number I do not know but it is over 200 and not 300.

“The 5, 000 vacancies were approved under the past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan for fresh recruitment in 2012, which is still pending.”
\Kings disclosed that the 5, 000 officers that would be recruited soon are to be deployed to the borders across the country after obtaining proper training.

Recall that in 2014, immigration recruitment tragedy occurred on Saturday, March 15 when 6.5 million people from all the 37 states of the country including the FCT stormed various recruitment centers in the country for the 4, 000 vacant positions in the service. No fewer than 16 job seekers lost their lives while several others sustained various degrees of injuries. The main causes of death was based on overcrowding, stampede, exhaustion, and impatience of the job seeker.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau, minister of interior who gave a speech in Sokoto state, revealed that out of the over 1, 500 routes into the country, only about 100 are currently manned by the security forces, leaving about 1, 400 routes unmanned.