Sacked Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mr Parradang Was Corrupt : Abba Moro

The immediate past Minister of Interior, Comrade Patrick Abba Moro, has confirmed that he wrote a petition to the Attorney-General of Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice to investigate the last Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment exercise, following the suspension and subsequent replacement of the Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), David Parradang.

Moro, in a statement on Friday, expressed shock that he was being made a scapegoat for the outcome of the controversial employment exercise supervised by the Presidential Committee to Assist in Immigration recruitment. 

Full Statement Below....

“If I prevented Mr. Parradang from carrying out the job of recruitment as Minister of Interior, did I go with his sense of responsibility of knowing how not to conduct employment without budgetary provision and utter disregard for extant rules? Yes, I wrote to the Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to seek clarification to guide the Board when I discovered that the Presidential Committee to assist the Board had assumed a life of its own and was conducting the recruitment rather than assist the Board,”

“The duties of the Comptroller-General of Immigration are well spelt out in the Nigeria Immigration Act. If I am so powerful as to prevent the Immigration Boss from his clearly defined duties, then Mr. David Parradang should examine himself whether he is competent for the job. It is pure cheap blackmail.

“The duties of the Comptroller-General are well defined in the Immigration and Prison Services Act Cap II LFN, 2014 (as amended). That of the Board is also explicitly stated in the Act establishing the Board.
“As Minister of Interior, I operated within the confines of my mandate according to the Law. I did not in any way interfere in the running of the Nigeria Immigration. Mr. Parradang and his co-travellers should note that there are other agencies/services in the Ministry of Interior. I wouldn’t have singled out the Nigeria Immigration Service for interference.”

“In the course of my duty as the Minister of Interior, I noticed Mr. Parradang demonstrated gross insubordination, complete disregard for constituted authority and indiscipline, Rather than cooperate to reposition the Service, Mr. Parradang frustrated every of my effort. Mr. Parradang frustrated all efforts to investigate Expatriate Quota administration abuse with allegations of illegal grant of Expatriate Quota by Immigration officers; frustrated all efforts by the committee on Certificate forgery by setting up a parallel committee whose report never saw the light of day; Mr. Parradang frustrated all efforts to investigate contracts he awarded and paid for without contract execution.

“What value was Parradang adding to the work of the Presidential Committee when on March 15, 2014 he abandoned his duty to provide leadership to the conduct of the recruitment to attend birthday parties in Jos? The same way he chose to gallivant in America and UK during the 2014 Promotion Exercise against official advice.

“It is interesting to note that official records of officers Mr. Parradang didn’t want promoted were discovered missing. Just the same way records of officers who were supposed to have retired from the Service were manipulated to allow them stay longer and Mr. Parradang would frustrate their investigation”,  A very senior officer of the Federal Fire Service who collected money of close to N100 million was investigated, found guilty for extorting money from unsuspecting members of the public for job and was handed over to the Police for prosecution”. “Yet an officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service under Mr. Parradang’s watch who was found guilty of a similar offence was shielded despite repeated directives for action against him.

I challenge Mr. Parradang and his cohorts to present any evidence that I ever asked favours for anybody let alone people from Benue State. It is on record that when I assumed office as Minister, Immigration officers stagnated for upward of 16 years without Promotion whereas the likes of Mr. parradang got accelerated/special promotions to become Comptroller-General. Some of his course mates only became Comptrollers in the 2014 Promotion exercise. These were the officers Mr. Parradang claimed were not qualified to become Comptroller whose appraisal documents were hidden away from the Board.

I did all I did because I knew them to be right for the system. I did my utmost best in service to my fatherland. Mr. Parradang should be responsible enough to accept responsibility for his actions in office,” he said.