Comptroller-General of the Nigeria
Immigration Service (NIS) Mr. David Parradang
Adebiyi Adedapo in Abuja
President Muhammodu Buhari on Friday ordered
suspension of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS)
Mr. David Parradang.
In a letter signed by Director/Secretary of the
Ministry of Interior, A. A. Ibrahim, Parradang was said to have issued letters
of appointments of 700 Assistant Inspectors of Immigration and 900 Assistants
III into the Nigeria Immigration Service without approval.
He was also accused of failing to take measures to correct the wrong doing despite repeated advice given as conveyed in letters reference No. FMI/PSO/001/III/402 of 11th June, 2015 and Reference letter FMI/PSO/001/IIII/411 of 14th June, 2015.
"Having considered the above-mentioned act committed by you to make deliberate disregard to the extant laws, insurbodination to constituted authority and improper behaiour inimical to the service that is unbecoming of a public officer, I am to inform you that you have beeen suspended from the office with immediate effect, while you awiat further instructions, you are to hand over the affairs of your office to the most senior officer in the Immigration Service" stated Ibrahim in the suspension letter.
Consequently, a Deputy Comptroller-General Mr.
Martin's Kure Abechi has been directed to take over from the suspended
immigration chief.
Aside the reason given for the suspension, Parradang's trouble may also not be unconnected to how terrorist ISIS chief, Ahmed Al Assir, was granted Nigerian Visa in Lebanon to visit the country.
It was gathered that Buhari ordered a full
investigation into the circumstances surrounding the issuance of Visa to the
wanted terrorist who has been on the watch list of several governments.
Ahmed Al Assir was reportedly arrested at in
Lebanon Airport on his way to Nigeria through Egypt.
The Lebanese government accused him of
involvement in the death of 17 Lebanese solders and sentenced him to death.
A source within the Presidency revealed that the
President was embarrassed over the development, adding that the Buhari-led
administration would not continue to watch a para-military agency in charge of
Visa application frustrate government efforts to stamp out terrorists from the
country.
Another source in the ministry of Foreign Affairs
said the ministry had been directed to explain how the wanted terrorist was able
to get a Nigerian visa.
“The reported arrest of the wanted terrorist is a huge embarrassment to Nigeria and the President has directed that the matter should be investigated. The embassy in Lebanon has been directed to furnish the ministry with details of how the man got the visa. The National Intelligence Agency has been directed to provide details of what happened.”
“The reported arrest of the wanted terrorist is a huge embarrassment to Nigeria and the President has directed that the matter should be investigated. The embassy in Lebanon has been directed to furnish the ministry with details of how the man got the visa. The National Intelligence Agency has been directed to provide details of what happened.”
1st JUMP
CAPTION: Founding Managing Director of Chams
Plc, Mr. Demola Aladekomo
Chams Shuts Operations, Holds NIMC Responsible for Action
Emma Okonji
Chams Shuts Operations, Holds NIMC Responsible for Action
Emma Okonji
The Founding Managing Director of Chams Plc, Mr.
Demola Aladekomo has alleged that the Chams City Project, spread across Abuja,
Port Harcourt, Benin City and Lagos, are folding up, having gone bankrupt as a
result of its intellectual property and technical partners allegedly stolen by
the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
Chams Plc recently shut its operations in Benin City, Abuja, and Port Harcourt and later shutdown the remaining operations in Lagos last week, owing to its state of bankruptcy.
Lamenting the situation, which has put thousands
of Nigerians out of job, Aladekomo blamed it on the action of the management of
NIMC, which he said, stole the intellectual property and technical partners of
Chams, and rendered Chams bankrupt.
Although he said Chams had gone to court to
challenge the action of NIMC, he alleged that NIMC, as a federal government
agency, is using the federal myth to frustrate the company and deny it of
justice.
Narrating the ordeal of Chams, Aladekomo said
Chams had a concession agreement with NIMC in 2007, to produce National Identify
Cards for Nigeria, which was approved by the former President Olusegun Obadanjo,
but that NIMC deliberately delayed it for three years.
“During the period of delay, Chams went to the
capital market to raise N8.4 billion, in addition to the company's savings of
N800 million and invested all the amount in building Chams City registration
centres in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Benin City, and Lagos and equipped them with
computer systems, with each centre having over 1,000 computer systems. Apart
from the buildings, Chams also employed staff in all the centres and built
Identity Card Plant in Abuja, which has the capacity to produce 1.75 million
identity cards in a day. In addition to that, Chams also built the biggest
switch in the whole of Africa, in Abuja, Nigeria, to assist in payment system
transactions for the National Identity Card project,” Aladekomo told
THISDAY.
According to him, as at 2008, all the centres were ready in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Benin, and Lagos, in addition to the card plant and switching centre, but that NIMC decided to sabotage its efforts by asking Chams in 2012, to submit all its design for the national identity card project, its intellectual property like the software design, including its technical partners for the purpose of verification, which Aladekomo said Chams gladly did. After a few weeks, it discovered that NIMC was already talking with its technical partners like MasterCard and in 2013, NIMC corroborated with President Goodluck Jonathan to officially announce MasterCard as the technical partner of NIMC on the national identity card project, “after NIMC got N30 billion from the federal government on the national identity card project.”
He alleged that since then, NIMC severed its business relationship with Chams, a situation, he explained, forced Chams into bankruptcy.
Aladekomo said he was spending N500 million in
maintaining the centres in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Benin City, and was
paying staff salaries, without getting support from NIMC.
He said at a point, he could no longer fund the
centres, since they were not generating money and decided to shut its operations
in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Benin City. Then, last week, it decided to shut the
remaining centre in Lagos, which invariably, has put several Nigerians out of
job.
When contacted to respond to the allegation
leveled against NIMC, its Director-General, Mr. Chris Onyemenam, declined.
Chams Plc is Nigeria’s foremost ICT firm,
renowned for providing a variance of qualitative products and services in the
digital arena. The company which began operations in 1985 as a privately-owned
business, specialising in computer maintenance, has over the years, successfully
migrated to the developing enterprise technology solutions, initiating several
ground-breaking accomplishments and has remained the industry’s leading player.
Its core objective right from inception has been to create and deploy innovative
and beneficial technologies for the betterment of Nigeria. It is line with this
objective that the company created another trailblazer project called
ChamsCity.
ChamsCity was a technological project conceived and developed after its parent company, Chams Plc won a hugely competitive bid for a concessional agreement to develop and syndicate the process of identity management during the twilight of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency in 2007.
ChamsCity was a technological project conceived and developed after its parent company, Chams Plc won a hugely competitive bid for a concessional agreement to develop and syndicate the process of identity management during the twilight of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency in 2007.
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