Wife of the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Martins Kure Abeshi, Blessing Bulus, has allegedly assaulted a deputy superintendent of the service, one Hassan Mustapha Saleh, at the Nigeria Immigration Training School in Kano.

The incident, which followed a minor misunderstanding, took place on Thursday, April 7, 2016.

Blessing, said to be the third wife of the CG, is among new recruits into the service currently undergoing training in the school.

According to eyewitness account, trouble began when Mr. Saleh, a lecturer at the training school, saw Blessing sitting on the staircase of U.K. Umar block while her colleagues were taking their lectures in their respective classes.

Recalling the incident, the witness said, “I overheard Mr. Saleh directing the lady to go back to her class from a far distance but she refused. On reaching the staircase, he stopped and inquired why she was sitting there while lectures were on and therefore ordered her to go back to the lecture hall, but instead of obeying his directives, the lady shouted at him. And when the lecturer responded, the lady started raining abusive words on him before she finally grabbed at his neck and gave him a slap. She slapped him about five times before she finally tore his shirt.”

Another witness said this was the second time that officers of the service were having trouble with the lady, saying about two weeks earlier, another senior officer of the service; the chief inspector and dean of discipline of the school, Dalhatu Gwarzo, had a problem with the lady and was summoned to Abuja to clear his name before the CG.

When contacted for comment, the Public Relations Officer of the service in the school, Hajiya Amina Aliyu, said the commandant of the school had travelled on an official assignment. When pressed for comment, she said, “I don’t know anything about what you are talking about, therefore I cannot comment.”

But a source in the school told Daily Trust that a 7-man investigative panel headed by an assistant comptroller was constituted to investigate the matter.

Daily Trust reports that the panel queried the officer who confessed that he retaliated after she pointed fingers at him. He said he pushed her hand away and she hit him. The committee concluded that the officer assaulted her first and also that he was not in uniform when the incident happened. The officer, according to the committee, ought to have reported her to the school authority especially because he was not wearing uniform when the whole incident happened.

The source, who is also a senior officer in the service, lamented what he described as “the typically unruly behaviour” of the lady, saying, “Although the eldest son of the CG is also undergoing training in the school as an assistant inspector, he does not behave the way this lady behaves. Unlike the lady, the boy is calm and will never brag because his father is the CG.”

The source added that if it were somebody else and not the CG’s wife that was involved she would have been severely dealt with.

The Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Deputy Comptroller of Immigration Ekpedeme King denied any knowledge of the incident when contacted.

Concerning the employment of two close relatives of the Comptroller General, Ekpedeme said he was not aware that the CG’s wife and son were among those newly recruited. “I can’t confirm that but if that is the case, what should worry us should be whether they are qualified to be in the Immigration or not. Are they competent? Are they qualified? If they are, we shouldn’t deny them because their parents are holding certain positions as long as they are Nigerians.”

•Text courtesy of Daily Trust.

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