NIS recruitment tragedy: Minister begs Nigerians for forgiveness...Says death of innocent Nigerians personal loss

THE Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, has again appealed to Nigerians for forgiveness over the recent ill-fated recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service that led to death of about 16 job seekers during stampedes in examination centres across the country.

Moro, who regretted that the exercise he intended to correct irregularities that used to characterise such recruitment in the past turned awry, particularly asked for forgiveness from members of the affected families.

He, therefore, reiterated his earlier position to take full responsibility of what had happened as the presiding Minister of Interior, adding that the tragic loss of lives at the event “is a personal loss to me.”

Moro, who spoke with journalists in Abuja during the weekend, called for understanding, while emphasising that his intention was genuine but “unfortunately the exercise turned tragic.”

He, however, said he was not prepared to join issues with either the Comptroller General of Immigration or the board incharge of recruitment and discipline of staff in the service because the incident involved loss of lives.

 He said: “I think that I should ordinarily ask Nigerians for understanding in this matter; understanding the intention; understanding the motive behind the whole thing of an open, transparent recruitment exercise that is the first of its kind into the services of Interior Ministry.

“An exercise that was coming from the background of the services in the Ministry of Interior being accused of job racketeering, money for job, instances of where people have been fleeced of upward of N500, 000 for slots of jobs.

He stressed that “This was intended primarily to give employment to Nigerians irrespective of their background, connections, contacts in government or the business circle.”

Moro reiterated that the exercise of March 15, 2014 was meant to correct all the ills of the past and give everybody an open opportunity to get employment.

“For me like I said, it is a personal loss because the exercise in the first place took place within the Ministry of Interior, organised by the ministry and its services and so whatever consequences, positive or negative that have come and in this instance negative, I as the minister of that ministry under whose purview this exercise took place where people lost their lives, certainly takes full responsibility.

“And I want to say repeatedly that the death of these young Nigerians, who would have added value to human resource asset of this nation is highly regrettable, and for the families, I insist that my heart goes out to them because I am a father too.”

Moro insisted that he did not have any disagreement with either the board or the Immigration Services officials over the recruitment.
“I am not a member of the steering committee and so I could not have disagreed with the suggestion of the steering committee when I didn’t attend the meeting. And from the records that are available in the ministry and transmitted to me which I approved, there was no indication that I was given an option that I would say I don’t like this option or I like this option.

“If you look at the presentation that I made to the Senate Committee on Interior, I did not subtract from the recommendation that was made to me and I did not add to it. I simply approved the request that was made,” he said.

Moro further explained that “this exercise, which we embarked upon the 15th, was the end result of a botched exercise in December 2012. From December 2012 to 15th March 2014, series of meetings were held. The board met many times, first to consider and approve the approval of the ministry’s tender board, that assessed the proposal for the engagement of a consultant for the e-recruitment.”

“Subsequently, the Board met and approved the template for the recruitment of the officers into the Immigration Service and these meetings after the signing of agreements with the consultant which is on record, the Board directed the Secretariat of the Board to liaise with the legal officer of the Ministry and the consultant to implement that agreement of e-recruitment.

“It is on record that from 30th of January to the 7th of February, series of meetings were held by the steering committee. The steering committee was made up of officials of the Ministry, Board and Nigeria Immigration Service, where decisions on procedures and mechanism of conducting the exercise on 15th March were taken. If these meetings were held, Board members were in attendance, Ministry officials were in attendance, Immigration officers were in attendance and somebody else is saying they are not aware of the procedures leading to the exercise, who could be the better judge here.

“There are minutes blow by blow of all the meetings that were held and the recommendations as to why they want to use the stadia across the country,” he said.