Disquiet in prisons over unpaid promotion arrears

Some prison officials, who spoke with our reporter on conditions of anonymity, said those promoted in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017 had not been paid their promotion arrears while those working in the Nigeria Immigration Service, Federal Fire Service and others agencies under the same Ministry of Interior had been placed on their next levels and paid their allowances. They called on President Muhammadu Buhari to order an investigation into the issue in order to know why the allowances had not been paid even though the funds for its payment had been released. The source said, “We are being deprived of our entitlements. The Nigeria Prisons Service is one of the departments under the Ministry of Interior which is currently headed by Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau (retd.). Other departments there are Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Federal Fire Service. Each of the departments under the ministry promoted their staff in 2012, 2013, 2014. There was no promotion in 2015. But they also promoted staff in 2016 and 2017.” He lamented that as a para-military organisation, the NPS workers had no union to fight for their welfare. “The board promoted the Immigration and Prisons staff. While those who were promoted in the Immigration in 2017 have been paid their promotion arreas, the NPS has failed to pay their workers that were promoted. And whenever the Comptroller General visits any zone in Nigeria, he keeps threatening workers who may contemplate writing petition with dismissal,” he said. Another prison official in Lagos State who spoke with SUNDAY PUNCH said he was promoted in 2013 but he had not been paid his promotion arrears. He said, “I’m a victim of this. I was promoted in 2013; the arrears have not been paid. Again in 2017, they did not even place the promoted workers on their new salary level let alone pay the arrears; while our counterparts in the Immigration have collected theirs. When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the NPS, Francis Enobore, said the names of promoted officers had been sent to the Ministry of Finance for processing of their promotion allowances. He said the payment delay was not limited to the prisons service, adding that “other para-military agencies were affected.”]]>