The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has deferred the transfer of five of its female officers to other states who partook in the #Bopdaddy challenge, a social media challenge.
This was disclosed in a statement published on its Twitter handle on Friday.
Recall that the five officers – Priscilla Irabor, Catherine Bakura, Blessing Udida, Binti Attabor, and Ockiya Eneni – were transferred to states far from their current deployment area for participating in the musical and fun challenge launched by musician, Folarin Falana, aka Falz.
Irabor was transferred from the Lagos State Command to the Nigeria Immigration Training School, Kano, Bakura was redeployed from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, to the NIS Training School Ahoada, Rivers State, while Udida was moved from the FCT Command to the Akwa Ibom State Command.
Attabor was posted from the service headquarters in Abuja to Yobe State Command and Eneni was moved from the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card Production Facility to the Borno State Command.
The Service had in the redeployment letter to the officers stated that the transfer will be at no cost to the NIS.
The decision elicited a lot of backlash from Nigerians on social media for the NIS, including Falz, the son of Femi Falana (SAN), who wrote a letter calling on the NIS to rescind its position.
In an apparent reaction to the objections by Nigerians, the NIS said it will shelve the transfer pending the conclusion of investigation of the officers’ conduct, which it said is ongoing.
The statement read: “The attention of the Comptroller General Muhammad Babandede MFR has been drawn to some trending matters on some social media platforms regarding the deployment of some of our Personnel to some Formations across the country.
“It is important to note that staff deployment remains a vital practice of regimented organisations such as ours and should be seen as such.
“As an agency, we maintain zero tolerance to any matters bordering on offences against discipline among members of our workforce irrespective of gender.
“We have a high premium for staff development and indeed encourage personal efforts but that must be within the confines of our rules and regulations.
“The matter involving the Personnel in question is still being investigated and therefore, the Comptroller General has directed that the earlier Posting Order be put on hold pending the conclusion of the investigation.”
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