Details
of the reason why the federal government sacked Rosemary Chinyere Uzoma
as controller-general of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) emerged
yesterday. Insider sources spoke on her tenure in the organisation.
Mrs Uzoma, who was appointed the second female controller-general of
the NIS following the sudden death of her predecessor in office, Mrs
Rosemary Nwizu, allegedly incurred the wrath of the government due to
various misdemeanours such as sending her cousins and other lower-cadre
staff on foreign intervention programmes meant for senior NIS personnel.
Before her appointment as the NIS boss, Mrs Uzoma held sway in
Anambra State and later served as the controller of immigration at the
African Affairs in the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS).
According to her colleagues and some of her subordinates, Uzoma
spared no love for persons from regions of the country other than her
native Abia State, and particularly those from Umuahia. She allegedly
posted her relations to “juicy positions within the service”.
For instance, a source disclosed that four of her first cousins, from
the Nwabueze family, were sent on foreign intervention missions to
choice countries like the United Kingdom and the United States. One of
the Nwabuezes, an inspector in the service at the time of posting in
2006, had since relocated his family to the US, but now lives on the
bills of the NIS.
Comfort Nwabueze, a typist in Festac Passport Office, another of her
first cousins in Lagos, was also sent on foreign intervention trips
about three or four times. This was also courtesy of Uzoma, who also
ensured that Comfort remained at the Festac office, a three-minute walk
from her house.
Most startling of the revelations about the sacked NIS chief is the
fact that even with the much-touted fool-proof nature of the Nigeria
e-passport, some foreigners, particularly Ghanaians and Beninois who are
commercial vehicle drivers on the Lagos-Badagry-Seme-Cotonou
international route, have Nigeria’s e-passport.
It was also learnt that, in a move to demonstrate her love and
commitment to her marriage and her husband’s kinsmen in Nkwerre, Imo
State, Uzoma turned recruitment in the NIS to a family affair when she
allegedly announced at a Town Hall meeting that the youths of Imo State
origin who are interested in being recruited into NIS should make their
intentions known. This gesture, expectedly, threw up an army of
applicants, several of whom eventually got recruited into the NIS, not
necessarily out of merit but on the basis of tribal and marital ties.
When LEADERSHIP WEEKEND confronted Mrs. Uzoma with some of these allegations through a text message, her response was prompt: “You may wish to get in touch with my PA on these issues.”
At the NIS headquarters in Sauka, Abuja, Uzoma‘s PA, Dominique
Asogwu, simply explained that the allegations against the former NIS
chief were incorrect. “These allegations against the CG are not true.
They are unfair. It wasn’t she who tilted the Imo State figure high. Remember,
the recruitment board have had two chairmen who were of Imo State
extraction. They may have wittingly or unwittingly done this before the
CG assumed office.”
Sources said Uzoma also had problem with interior minister Abba Moro
because “the minister equally wanted more of his people in other choice
and juicy states like Ogun, Kano, Lagos and Akwa Ibom states. Others are
Rivers and Cross River states, but Uzoma was also bitterly fighting for
her own people”.
They alleged that the minister ordered the posting of a new officer
to the Festac passport office as the new passport officer, but Mrs.
Uzoma disregarded it and returned her favourite to the office. Also, the
helmsman of the Ogun State command, who is reported to be a candidate
of a former president without throwing a fight, allegedly reported to
the Nigerian leader, who in turn called President Goodluck Jonathan to
ensure the CG reversed the appointment.
President Jonathan was said to have ordered the interior minister to
reverse the postings but a vehemently adamant Uzoma would take none of
that, a situation which led to her sack last week by the president.
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