It appears to be a season of reinstatements as Daniel Makolo an officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) joined the list of long-dismissed government officials whose reinstalment has been ordered by court.
Though he was fired on 25 April 2018, the dismissal was backdated to 2017 when he was suspended. Whether the NIS, will comply with the orders of court is a different matter. Last year the Army said it will not obey a judgment of the Appeal Court to reinstate a dismissed colonel.
In 2022, the National Judicial Council (NJC) reinstated Hon. Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia as a judge of the Federal High Court. On 7 November 2018 and based on the recommendation of the council, President Muhammadu Buhari dismissed Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia. The reinstatement, however, came on account of a court judgment that quashed a 15-count money laundering charge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, preferred against her.
Days ago, Honourable Justice Gladys K. who was compulsorily retired on 27 February 2014, was restored back to office. The reinstatement was contained in a circular issued by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Honourable Justice J. T. Tshoho dated 27th January 2023. The Court of Appeal had since Court 25 February 2022 voided her compulsory retirement.
The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Abuja which barely a week ago ordered the reinstatement of Daniel Makolo deprecated the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), on whose watch its ex-Comptroller General Mohammed Babandede “lawlessly…suspended and later dismissed the officer without just cause.”
Premium Times reported that delivering judgement in the suit filed by Makolo to challenge his dismissal, Hon. Justice Edith Agbakoba described the action of Mr. Babandede who retired in September 2021 as lawless and illegal.
Makolo a Chief Superintendent of Immigration (CSI) at the time was suspended on 7 November 2017 for querying the legality of some policy decisions by the Mr. Babandede-led NIS. Prior to his suspension, he was excluded from participating in promotion examinations for years. His salary was also stopped from the time of his suspension.
He was eventually dismissed through a 25 April 2018 letter, which was backdated to take effect from the time of his suspension in 2017. According to Premium Times, the NIS anchored his dismissal on allegations of insubordination and making false claims against a government official.
Premium Times reported that in a series of actions he filed to get justice, alleging that he was never accorded any form of fair hearing or subjected to investigations on any of the allegations levelled against him, Mr. Makolo added that the failure of the authorities to investigate or hear from him before his dismissal in a malicious manner violated natural justice, the provisions of the Nigerian constitution and the public service rules.
In the suit marked NICN/ABJ/337/2020, Makolo sued the Minister of Interior in his capacity as the Chairman of the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDFIPSB), CDFIPSB, the CG-NIS, NIS, the Head of Service of the Federation and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).
In her judgment, Justice Agbakoba, expressed displeasure with the NIS for going ahead to suspend Makolo in violation of the court’s order directing parties to maintain status quo.
Her lordship equally held that the NIS acted unlawfully by suspending Makolo because he sued the organization and that the NIS failed to comply with the relevant provisions of the Public Service Rules in the way they went about dismissing him.
She pointed out that Makolo’s employment with the NIS was with statutory flavour and that the issues of discipline and termination of such employment must always be in line with the provisions of the law.
Agbakoba, among others, ordered the claimant’s reinstatement within 30 days from 24 January 2023, being the day the judgement was delivered.
The judge further made an order “reinstating the claimant to the employment of the defendants without loss of rank, position or privileges as his contemporaries still in the defendant’s service are now Deputy Comptroller-Generals of the 4th defendants (NIS).”
She made another order “directing the defendants to forthwith pay the claimant all his outstanding salaries, emoluments, allowances and other entitlements due to him from November 7th, 2017 when his salary was stopped unlawfully, till when the claimant is fully reinstated to the employment of the 4th defendant without loss of rank, position and privileges as his contemporaries still in the service of the defendants.”
In a September 2021 article published by Law & Society Magazine, Makolo observed that Babandede’s tenure means different thing to a whole lot of people, with divergent opinions. Below are his words.
“You will recall that on assumption of duties, Babandede rubbished all his predecessors, claiming that he met nothing on ground, that nothing was handed over to him, and that none of his predecessors did anything tangible, he claimed that there was so much corruption in NIS. Everybody was corrupt except Babandede. He said there was so much demoralization in the Service. These are all the things he said in his first interview with PREMIUM TIMES.
“Now you and I know better concerning who is deceiving who, and the big question is: what has Babandede bequeath to the Nigeria Immigration Service as he bows out? Nothing except corruption-ridden service. How much was being paid for passport before his appointment, and how much is it now.? We all know that it has jumped up by over 100 percent.
“The level of corruption has risen rapidly under Babandede administration at NIS. What is the morale of officers under his watch.? Passport racketeering under Babandede’s administration has taken a frightening dimension, as at the time he took over Nigeria passport was just about N15,000, but today it has jumped up to about N50,000 depending on the corrupt officer you are dealing with. Members of the public can attest to all these corrupt practices under Babandede.
“Babandede has done nothing to improve border patrol. Meanwhile, officers were being transferred indiscriminately without paying their transfer allowance. Promotion of officers has been so lopsided under Babandede that lots of officers who had not attended promotion interviews were being moved to their next rank. Take a look at the porosity of the Nigerian borders with its attendant influx of bandits from other countries, especially our neighbouring countries.
“Has Babandede been able to do anything? In spite of huge billions of naira said to have been expended in the procurement of border management equipment, has anything changed, it’s not the duty of soldiers to guard our borders it’s essentially the responsibility of the Nigeria Immigration Service, and this has failed under the leadership of Babandede at NIS. A chunk of NIS revenue under Babandede was being diverted into private business accounts, and most of the jobs meant for NIS were given to private business concerns that have their interest.
“75% of revenue under the leadership of Babandede at NIS went into private accounts, and I’m saying this with all sense of responsibility. Babandede administration at NIS should be probed.”
