President Muhammadu Buhari has suspended the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, David Parradang.
Parradang was suspended on Friday while the service’s deputy Comptroller General, Martin Abeshi, was asked to take over immediately.
The reason for the suspension could not be ascertained yet.
However, some analysts have linked the suspension to the recent case of Islamic State (IS) terror suspects caught in possession of Nigerian visa.
The Nigerian government had earlier in the week launched an investigation into how the suspected terrorist was granted a Nigerian visa in Lebanon to visit Nigeria.
According to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bulus Lolo, the suspected terrorist was of “Palestinian extraction and resides in Lebanon”.
The suspect, Ahmad al-Assir, an Islamic cleric was arrested by Lebanese authorities as he attempted to leave Lebanon to Nigeria via Cairo early on 15th August.
He was arrested while attempting to travel with a fake Palestinian passport and a valid Nigerian Visa at the Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport in Lebanon.
Reacting, Buhari had immediately ordered an investigation into the matter. It is unclear however, whether Parradang’s suspension has any link with the matter.
Also, the Immigration Service under Parradang’s leadership sparked national outrage in 2014 after nearly 20 job applicants died in stampede during an Immigration recruitment test.
Ahead of the examinations, an agent commissioned by the Ministry of Interior, Abba Moro collected N1000 from each of over 700,000 applicants.
Despite raising nearly a N1 billion, the examination was conducted in a very shabby manner. Several people were stampeded to death as a result.
The suspended Comptroller-General denied any connection with the shabby recruitment exercise, blaming everything on Moro. The senate has long swept the result of investigations into the incident under the carpet.
