Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has faulted claims that a few months to the end of his tenure, the minister of interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, had concluded plans to “commercialise” Nigeria’s resident permit processes.
The NIS said Aregbesola had neither sold nor approved the concessioning of the service facilities, stressing that it had been done before his appointment as minister.
In a statement by NIS national spokesman, Tony Akuneme, he described the claims as a desperate attempt to malign the person and office of the minister, as well as to misinform the general public.
It reads in part, “The attention of the NIS has been drawn to an online story titled: ‘Months to tenure expiration, Aregbesola set to ‘commercialise Nigeria’s resident permit processes, others’. In the story, the author has accused the minister of interior of commercialising some immigration services.
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored this, 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:
“Many services of the NIS have long been commercialised and warehoused in very robust partnerships with internationally-acclaimed professional service providers such as CONTEC, Newworks, IRIS, Greater Washington, OIS, and others.
“The minister of interior 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 NIS under Aregbesola’s watch, the agency said had continued to reposition and rebrand itself, winning local and international accolades in the process, such as the board membership of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for the fourth time back-to-back, seven times winner of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council Award, the LEADERSHIP Newspaper Award on the Comptroller General of Immigration as the 2022 Public Service Man of the Year” to mention just a few.
Akuneme said 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.
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