Ten months after their recruitment, officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service said they had yet to be paid their salary arrears.
Some of the personnel whose appointment letters dated August 15, 2023, said they were not paid between September 2023 and February 2024, despite being captured on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
While calling for the intervention of the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo on the matter, the personnel claimed that they started receiving salary from March 2024, insisting that the arrears had not been paid as of the time of filing this report.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because service officers are not allowed to talk to journalists, one of the NIS personnel at the Lagos Command said, “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.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, who collected their appointment letters at the same time with the NIS officers, were paid their September, October, November and December salaries in 2023.
However, the Public Relations Officer of the NIS, Mr. Kenneth Udo, said the non-payment of the salary arrears was an omission from the IPPIS.
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.”
