Immigration officers abroad decry 14 months salary arrears

By Marie-Therese Nanlong

Jos – Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) officers deployed on foreign missions have raised the alarm over worsening living conditions, alleging that they have been left without salaries and allowances for the past 14 months.

According to them, the last payment they received was in June 2024, leaving them stranded in foreign countries where they say survival depends solely on regular wages.

Their distress comes at a time when the Service has announced new passport fees that will take effect on September 1, 2025.

Lamenting their plights in Jos, Plateau State, one of the affected officers who didn’t want to be named said, “We are owed about 14 months salaries and other allowances now. The last time I received a single payment was June 2024. Life is hard in a very expensive country where I was posted.”

“It will interest you to know that there are about five MDAs at the foreign mission sent by the federal government. None of these agencies are owed more than three months but only Immigration Services, yet we are generating revenue both directly and indirectly to the government apart from the security of the country,” another officer lamented.

The officers said many of them have been forced to send their families back to Nigeria due to the inability to feed them abroad. Others have resorted to calling relatives at home for financial support.

Another officer revealed, “Now we are in a serious dilemma, and we cannot complain, neither can we report or voice out, because that will amount to indiscipline. But as we continue keeping quiet, we are dying silently, and worse still we are sending a very wrong and dangerous signal that all is well with us, while it is not.”

Regardless of all this, they unanimously stated that a good thing is that the Immigration officers on mission abroad have been maintaining good discipline, good work ethics and integrity, and one hardly sees any report of extortions, shoddy deals or misconduct from the officers.

Meanwhile, the Service Public Relations Officer (SPRO), Assistant Comptroller of Immigration, AS Akinlabi, when contacted, described the issue as “an internal issue,” and assured that “the Service is working on resolving. Very soon, they will have no cause to complain because the Service is resolving it.”

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