From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Idris Jere, has absolved the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, of any complicity in the speculated plan to commercialise some immigration services.

The CG Immigration, in a statement issued by Tony Akuneme, SPRO, maintained that the Interior Minister is not concessioning Residency permit processes but the process of issuing Expatriate Quotas which falls directly under his mandate.

He also disclosed that; “many services of the NIS have long been commercialized and warehoused in very robust partnerships with internationally acclaimed professional service providers.”

“Ordinarily, we would ignore the report accusing the Minister of Interior of commercializing some immigration services, but for the need to correct some errors and in fact save the unsuspecting public from being misled, It is imperative to put matters in proper perspective viz: 

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“Already, many services of the NIS have long been commercialized and warehoused in very robust partnerships with internationally acclaimed professional service providers such as CONTEC, Newworks, IRIS, Greater Washington, OIS, and others.

“The Minister is not concessioning Residency permit processes but the process of issuing Expatriate Quotas which falls directly under his mandate. The Advert under reference is on concessioning of Expatriate quota and NOT immigration facilities. This is the crux of the matter and needs to be properly understood. 

“The report which tries to malign the person and office of the Minister equally tended to misinform the general public. The NIS, under the watch of Aregbesola, has continued to reposition and rebrand itself, winning local and international accolades in the process.

“The accolades include the board membership of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for the 4th time back to back, seven times winner of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council Award, newspaper Award on the Comptroller General of Immigration as the 2022 Public Service Man of the  year, to mention just these few.   

“The NIS, under the purposeful supervision of the Minister, remains committed to serving Nigerians and has its doors open to do so all the time. The morale of our officers is at an all time high, with the spate of promotions and welfare packages,” the statement read. 

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