By Racheal Momoh
The Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS), on Sunday the 5th of February, admitted that the Federal Government through the Service have long been in a robust deal with CONTEC GLOBAL through its subsidiary CTTL, Newworks, IRIS, Greater Washington, OIS and many others.
The robust partnership deal which has been on for decades before the current Minister’s tenure is being driven on PPP synergy EXTRAORDINAIRE NEWS learnt has been mutually beneficial to the Federal Government and all the parties and stakeholders.
In a signed statement, the Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mr. Idris Isah Jere, also admitted that the Service commercialized and warehoused in very robust partnerships with internationally acclaimed professional service providers such as CONTEC, Newworks, IRIS, Greater Washington, OIS, and others.
The statement, read: “The attention of the NIS has been drawn to a misleading online story of the Premium Times of February written by one Mojeed Alabi, 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, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of commercializing some immigration services.
“Ordinarily, we would ignore this but for the need to correct some errors and in fact save the unsuspecting public from being misled, It is therefore imperative to put matters in proper perspective
“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, NIS vehemently stated.
The write up 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, such as 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, the Leadership 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 including recruitment of both senior and junior cadres of Nigerians.
The public is therefore advised to discountenance the publication, while we equally wish to advise the author and others like him to always double check his facts before going to press.
Signed: Tony Akuneme
SPRO.