Nearly a year after joining the force, officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service remain unpaid, their lives hanging in the balance as they struggle without their deserved salary arrears.
Despite being officially onboarded on August 15, 2023, these dedicated officers haven’t received their rightful pay for the months between September 2023 and February 2024. Their names are on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, yet the funds have not followed.
Desperation echoes in their plea for the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to step in and resolve this grievous oversight. Though they began receiving their salaries from March 2024, the unpaid arrears continue to burden them heavily.
One officer, speaking anonymously from the Lagos Command due to strict regulations, shared this heart-wrenching situation, highlighting the dire need for immediate action stated, “We resumed induction training in Abuja from September to December 2023.
“Our appointment letters were dated August 15, 2023, but the service started paying salary from March 2024, leaving September, October, November and December 2023, January and February 2024 salaries behind. They have refused to pay us salary arrears for seven months.
Saturday PUNCH uncovered that while officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps who received their appointment letters simultaneously with Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) personnel were compensated for their September to December salaries in 2023, their NIS counterparts were not.
The NIS Public Relations Officer, Mr. Kenneth Udo, attributed this discrepancy to an oversight in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
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Udo said, “All Federal Government employees are on the IPPIS; that is where the issue is. There were some omissions, but the service is following up. The service met with the director of IPPIS last week; we are aware of the problem, but we are not responsible for the omission.
“We will surely rectify it; hopefully by the end of this month, the affected officers will receive their money. It is going to be rectified; we are on top of it.”
Source: The PUNCH
