CSO protests continued stay of Immigration CG in office

President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to step into the crisis brewing at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) following the alleged refusal of the Acting Comptroller of Immigration, Isah Jere Idris, to vacate office.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Public Accountability, Olufemu Lawson, made the call during a protest at the NIS headquarter on Friday.

However, the NIS insisted that Jere is occupying his office legally.

While speaking with the press during the protest, Lawson had said: “We want to call the attention of Nigerians, especially President Muhammadu Buhari to the continued illegal stay of Mr Isah Jere as the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service.

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“His tenure ended in April 2022 when he is to retire from the Service but President Muhammadu Buhari in his wisdom, granted him an extension to act as the Comptroller General for that period which suppose to have elapsed on the 24th of April 2023.

“But as I speak with you, Mr Jere continues to stay in office as the Comptroller General of the Service but he has also continued to lobby to remain in office despite having attained retirement age, despite having exhausted the tenure extension granted by Mr President.”

Lawson said Jere is illegally occupying the Comptroller General’s office, saying it amounts to corruption “which is not in tandem with the principle of President Buhari’s administration.”

The Federal Government, earlier in April, had directed the Comptroller-General to hand over to the most senior officer in the Service when his tenure expires on April 24.

However, when contacted, the spokesman of the NIS, Tony Akuneme, dismissed the allegation that Mr Jere is occupying the office illegally.

He said the CG had gotten another letter that extended his tenure till the end of the present administration.

“The CG has another letter that supersedes that one [letter directing him to vacate office]. He has been extended until the expiration of the tenure of the president. It’s just a one-month extension,” Akuneme said.