By Abdulaziz Abdulaziz
Abuja
By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Mohammed Babandede, has said that plans are on the way to visit houses of former governors, ministers and others, who are yet to return their diplomatic passports as directed by the federal government.
This visit, he said, would be followed with prosecutions of the affected former government officials.
Speaking during an interactive session with newsmen yesterday in Abuja, Babandede disclosed that the NIS had received approval to write to federal, states, local governments institutions to, henceforth, include the return of government documents before payment of retirement benefits.
” If you are a Senator or members of House of Representatives, before you finish your tenure, there is something that is called severance benefits, therefore, before you collect it, you must return your diplomatic passport.
“Also, you cannot cross the border to or fro with a diplomatic passport if you are not entitled to it, we will collect it. The best I can do for you is to give you photocopy of the passport or a letter that I have confiscated the passport.
“The next thing we will do is to go house to house to collect it. I told a former minister that it is an offense to hold a passport when you don’t deserve it. It attracts two years jail term. We will soon begin to catch defaulters.
People have started returning a lot of the passports,” he said
The CGI said that intense lobbying for postings in the service has remained a clog in the wheel of staff development and must be tackled head-on.
He added that contrary to insinuations and widespread propaganda, he was indeed subjected to rigorous security checks and in tense interviews before the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board (CDFIPB) recommended him.
