President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday announced the immediate suspension of the comptroller-general of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mr David Shikfu Parradang, from office.
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It would be recalled that a radical Muslim cleric, Ahmad al-Assir was arrested by Lebanese authorities as he attempted to leave Lebanon to Nigeria via Cairo.
In press briefing on Wednesday, a top official at Nigeria’s foreign ministry told journalists that its envoys to Lebanon were looking into how al-Assir, who was travelling with a fake Palestinian passport, got a valid Nigerian visa at the Beirut’s Rafik Hariri worldwide Airport.
A source at the Ministry of Interior, who pleaded not to be named for security reasons, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that Mr President was disappointed at Parradang’s failure to utilize intelligence reports that unravelled that the terrorist groups had syndicates that front for them in the country to purchase passports and obtain visas.
But how he beat the visa process at the Nigerian Embassy in Lebanon is creating ripples in security circles.
It was learnt that the NIS visa officers and other officials involved in the visa roll would be summoned to the country to explain their roles in issuing a visa to the terrorist, The Punch reports.
However, Nigerian embassy in Lebanon had reportedly denied issuing the visa to fugitive stating that Assir used fake visa in attempting to gain entrance. A number of Assir loyalists have been detained since his arrest, according to Middle Eastern newspaper Al-Bawaba. Some local news outlets suggested Mr Assir had also had plastic surgery to alter his appearance.
The army seized his headquarters after 48 hours of clashes that killed 18 soldiers, but Assir was able to escape with several of his followers.
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When the war in Syria began emboldening extremist Sunnis in Lebanon and inflaming sectarian tensions here, Mr Al Assir swiftly rose from obscurity to become a powerful voice. “This is because the name he presented with the passport that was reported as Palestinian does not tally with what the Lebanese has as his name”, he said. But slowly, the guise of a peaceful movement dripped away. He spoke about the need to confront Hizbollah, which he called “the party of Satan” or “the Iranian project” and accused it of dominating the Lebanese state.
