1,112 Officers to Be Recruited By Nigerian Immigration Service

The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede has said the recruitment exercise is in the process of hiring 1,112 officers in its ongoing recruitment exercise. 

The recruitment exercise is the first since 2014 when a similar exercise was mired by controversy following a stampede that killed many applicants, including seven in Abuja, the nation’s capital. 

Babandede speaking in an exclusive interview with Premium Times on Monday, July 31, said the current recruitment drive is meant to fill the shortfall of slots left after the service had absorbed 888 of 2,000 officers engaged in May 2015 that were later disengaged in August of the same year. 

The current recruitment exercise, is for three cadres of Assistant Superintendent of Immigration (II), Immigration Assistant (III) and Assistant Inspector of Immigration. 

Babandede in reference to the 2,000 officers that were fired by the Muhammadu Buhari administration in August, 2015, said: “I inherited a big problem when I came on board with a lot of young officers protesting on the streets about the recruitment that was cancelled in 2015.” He said although the 2,000 persons were employed to correct the 2014 impasse, their recruitment did not follow due process as they were issued offer letters without due process being followed. The Comptroller General said the ongoing employment was aimed at providing replacement for the 1,123 laid off by the screening of the initial 2,000 hired in May 2015.