The promotion of Assistant Comptroller General of Immigration, Garba Bello, who retired in June, to Deputy Comptroller of Immigration, is causing disquiet in the Nigeria Immigration Service.
Senior officers, who were overlooked in the recent promotion exercise, faulted Bello’s promotion as illegal and vowed to petition President Bola Tinubu over his recall from retirement.
Bello, with NIS number 10892, was born on June 3, 1964, enlisted in the service in 1990 and retired on June 3, 2024, having clocked 60 years.
This was in line with the Public Service Rules, which pegged the mandatory retirement age at 60 or 35 years in service, whichever comes first.
As part of his retirement, the service management held a send-off for the former ACG in charge of investigation at the NIS headquarters in Abuja.
However, in what appeared to be a violation of the Public Service Rules, the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board listed Bello as one of the ACGs elevated to DCG.
Apart from Bello, other promoted ACGs include Anietum Essien, Umanah James, Micheal Dike, George Dikel, Tukur Umar, Afolayan Ayeni and Usman Nagado.
A letter, with reference number, NIS/HQADM/4193/II/204 dated August 2, 2024, announced that Bello and seven others would be decorated with their DCG rank on Wednesday at the NIS headquarters.
The letter, titled, ‘Decoration of newly appointed Deputy Comptrollers General of Immigration,’ was signed by ACG Didel, on behalf of the CGI, Kemi Nandap.
It read, ‘’Further to letter Ref: CDCFIB/APPT/CG&DCG/61/VOL.V/59 of July 29, 2024, on the forwarded list of newly appointed Deputy Comptrollers General of Immigration, I am directed to request your presence at the decoration ceremony of the under-listed senior officers scheduled to hold as follows:
“Date: Wednesday, 7th August, 2024; Venue: Muhammad Babandede Conference Centre, Service Headquarters, Abuja. Time: 11am prompt. Accord top priority, please.”
It was further gathered that some junior officers were promoted over their seniors in the promotion exercise.
A look at the seniority list indicates that Didel, Umar and Ayeni were elevated above ACGs Sadiq Adebowale and Ngozi Odikpo, who are their senior in service.
While Didel, Umar and Ayeni were promoted to ACG in January 2023, Adebowale and Odikpo had been on the ACG rank since January 2022.
Commenting on Bello’s recall, a senior officer, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said, “The Supreme Court had held that once a civil servant has retired, his employment with the government ends and he cannot be re-appointed or promoted within the civil service. Any subsequent engagement is treated as a new contract.
“In Federal Civil Service Commission vs Laoye, the court reiterated that promotions are part of career progression within active service and cannot apply to someone who has retired. So, the board cannot justify this illegality.’’
When asked why Bello was recalled from retirement and promoted, the NIS spokesman, Kenneth Udo, simply said, “Because he wrote the (promotion) exams.’’
Asked to justify the decision, he said, “But I am not part of the process. We have a board that handles promotion and the minister is the chairman. So, this enquiry should be directed to them.’’
But the Secretary to the CDCFIB, Ja’afaru Ahmed, could not be reached for comment on Sunday as calls to his phone indicated it was unavailable. He had yet to respond to a text message seeking his comment on Bello’s recall and promotion.