The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has said that the ministry has promoted over 32, 000 officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Nigeria Fire Service, and the Nigerian Correctional Service, in the past year, since the inauguration of Tinubu’s administration.
He also said that over 97,000 passports were yet to be collected, adding that the ministry was now reaching out to Nigerians to collect the passports.
The minister stated this on Channels Television Politics Today programme, where he was a guest on Thursday night.
Tunji-Ojo noted that since the inception of the Civil Defense, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Service Board in 1986, there had never been promotion exercises completed within the same year, noting that under Tinubu’s administration, the ministry approved the promotion of over 32,000 offices across the agencies in a single day.
He said, “When we came on board, we realised that we used to have this national promotion, like people being promoted maybe in 2024, and it takes effect from 2023. So, when we looked at the record since the board’s inception, responsible for promotion, recruitment, and discipline, which was in 1986, never had we had a promotion exercise for that particular year completed within that year.
“And last year I tell you for the first time we broke that jinx, to the glory of God, people were promoted. And not just that people were promoted, I tell you that so many people, when we came on board, were on the same grade, they were stagnated in their careers, for like six, seven, some eight, some even nine years, but last year, we cleared the backlog of promotion, and in one day about 32,000 officers were promoted across all our agencies”, he said.
He added that the ministry had also begun to pay officers’ peculiar and equilibrium allowances as approved by the President, as well as a life assurance package, following the loss of several officers on duty in.
“In the Ministry of Interior, I’ll tell you what has happened; when we came in, there was no rent and equilibrium allowance, and the President approved the peculiar and rent allowance, and I can tell you from January, as of January this year, all officers started receiving their peculiar and rent allowance.
“During the election in Bayelsa, we lost about two of our officers, NSCDC officers, when the Correctional Centre in Calabar was attacked, we lost an officer, also when the immigration post at the border in Ilela was attacked we lost some of our gallant immigration officers, and of course, we realised that there was no life assurance policy, there was no insurance policy by the board. What did we do? we wrote to the President, and immediately the president approved the insurance. So now, in terms of the hazard, there is an assurance policy”, he stated.
Speaking on passport issuance to citizens, Tunji-Ojo also disclosed that there are over 97,000 passports yet to be collected, adding that the ministry was now reaching out to Nigerians to collect the passports.
“When I came on board, there was a backlog of 204,000 passports. Today, we do not have a single backlog. In fact, I am saying it officially now, I’m pleading with the Nigerians who have applied for their passports, to please go and collect their passport.
“Because we have about 97,000 passports across Nigeria that have been printed, and we are waiting for people to come and collect them. Except for those with wrong numbers or whatever we are calling people to come and pick up their passports”, the minister said.
Similarly, in December 2023, the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration, and Prisons Services Board promoted a total of 32,361 personnel across all ranks. https://punchng.com/fg-promotes-32361-nscdc-immigration-personnel-others/
Out of the figure, 21,385 personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps were promoted out of a total of 25,921 that sat for the promotion examination.
PUNCH