Officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) have cried to the Comptroller-General of Immigration Service, Idris Isah Jire, to pay them for their election duties or they would boycott Saturday’s gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections.
The personnel, under the aegies of concerned staff of the NIS, claimed that they were yet to receive their election duty allowances of February 25 general elections allowances, even the 2019 elections allowances. The officials, who briefed Daily Sun on two different occasions, threatened to boycott the forthcoming gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections.
Spokesman of the group, Mr Jones (not real name),” our counterparts in the Ministry of Interior have been paid. Our friends in the Civil Defence have been paid. Our friends in the army and the police have, also, been paid. I don’t know why our case is different. It is not fair. The money has been approved, but some big men in the service have connived to sit on the money, so that after sometime, they will share the money as they did in 2019 general elections……Continue Reading
“Officers are to receive N70,000 each, while junior ranks are to receive N30,000 each. We spent our money for hotel accommodation during the last presidential and national assembly elections. We spent our money for transportation and feeding. Yet the Service is preaching ethics of the job. They failed to do the needful, so how will a hungry official not compromise during elections? The Federal Government is talking of credible elections, yet it does not care about the welfare of the officers assisting in the conduct of the elections. There is no way a hungry official, who has no hope of receiving his allowances will not compromise during the elections.
“We can’t talk, because when you talk, you will be punished. There are many things happening in the Service that we have been condoning, but this time around, we want to start pouring out our minds. For instance, if you visit our offices, especially in Lagos State Command, you will see officers who were transferred from other states, sleeping in the offices, because their transfer allowances have not been paid. It is an eyesore to see people cooking in the offices.
Sleeping in the office is against Immigration Acts, but the authority cannot do anything about it.
Second, some of us have been in the same rank for over 20 years without promotion. The authority conducted promotion examination since 2021, but the results have not been released, because the authority doesn’t want to pay promotion allowances. Let the authority release the result.
“We are going through hell. Some of us are on the salary of N45,000. An Inspector of Immigration receives N82,000, while his counterpart in the Nigerian Customs Service earns more than N200, 000, and the authority keeps lecturing us on ethics. Why would a frustrated officer, who sees the collosal difference between his or her salary and others from sister agencies not be corrupt. If any immigration officer is corrupt, it is the NIS authority that pushed him or her to be corrupt. Except the immigration authority does something drastic about our plights, it should not expect us to be sincere in our job. Some of us have put in 30 years in the service and will soon retire, but there is nothing to show for our efforts on the job. Some of our colleagues have died without receiving their allowances and gratuity.
“We are, therefore, appealing to our CG to look into our plights, especially on the issues of promotion, allowances, entitlements, and gratuity. The most important one is our elections allowances. If by Friday morning, we don’t get our election allowances, we won’t participate in Saturday’s gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections.”
When Daily Sun visited the Immigration office, at Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos, last week and yesterday, some officers were cooking in front of the offices; clothes were hung in front of the offices, while some of them were already sleeping in the offices.
However, the Service Public Relations Officer, Mr. Tony Akunneme, in a telephone conversation with Daily Sun last week, said the election allowances had been paid, but it was left to the individual banks of the personnel to transfer the money to their accounts.
On the issue of transfer allowances, he said the the service was not owing any transfer allowances, “it is just that some of the officers are ignorant of the fact that majority of them crying that their transfer allowances have not been paid were not transferred by the service. Some of them asked for transfer for the best reasons known to them. So, if you ask for transfer, the service will not pay you transfer allowance, but if the service transfers you, you must be paid before you move to your new station. Sometimes, when a senior officer is on transfer, he would request to go with some staff; so you don’t expect the service to take care of the officers going on transfer with their superior who asked for them.”
On the allegation of not releasing promotion examination results, he said: “It is false. If anyone is claiming that he or she has not been promoted, the person failed the examination.”
As of the time of filling this report, the officers’ election allowances have not been paid.…..Continue Reading
