Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has urged men of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to shun every act of corruption while discharging their duties.
Aregbesola gave the charge at the” NIS 2020 End-of-the year Dinner/Award “held at the agency’s headquarters on Saturday night, December 12, 2020
Represented by Dr Shuaibu Begore, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, the minister said the NIS had performed excellently in the outgoing year in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
“2020 has been an excellent year for NIS, it has discharged its duty well without compromising the nation; hard work and productivity has distinguished those of you who were given awards.
“This event is to spur all officers to work harder, they should shun all acts of corruption as they continue to carry out their duties,” he stressed.
The Comptroller-General of NIS, Mr Muhammad Babandede, while comended the Federal Government for its support towards the service, said that the agency had done well in 2020 in terms of project initiation.
According to him, the agency executed a lot of capital and human resource development projects in spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
He noted that there was no investment higher than human capital improvement, hence the recognition of distinguished officers.
“If you have machines and you don’t have men that will work with them, nothing will work.
“The award is to motivate them we hope, and to have prospect that the service will do more better next year 2021.
“We will get enforcement, make sure that people comply with our laws at the points of entry into the country, we will make sure 2021 is a pure compliance year,” he said.
Comptroller Ngozi Odikpo, the Chairperson of the 2020 award committee, stated that the awardees were carefully selected based on resourcefulness, gallantry, innovation and exemplary conduct in the discharge of their duties.
Odikpo thanked the Comptroller-General for giving the committee the privilege to serve, promising to do more if given the same opportunity.
“The awardees for this year are 31 in number. A new category was introduced this year: the post-humous award in honour of colleagues who died in active service,” Odikpo said.