Following the deaths of about 20 people across the country during Saturday’s job recruitment exercise by the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS; several Nigerians have called for the dismissal of Abba Moro, Nigeria’s Interior Minister. Their petition, issued Sunday, also called for the dismissal of David Parradang, the Comptroller- General of Immigration, as well as the criminal prosecution of the duo for involuntary homicide. The petition was signed by Chidi Odinkalu, Chairman of the Nigerian Human Rights Commission; Nasir El-Rufai, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory; Ayo Obe, lawyer and human rights activist; Bashir Tofa, former Presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention; Aliyu Modibbo, a former Minister of the Federal Capital Teritory and 57 others. “The Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and the Inspector-General of Police together with the Director-General of State Security, should launch a joint criminal investigation into the deaths of these job seekers,” the statement said. “An independent audit should immediately be instituted into the monies made by the Ministry and the NIS from the job seekers and criminal investigations should be commenced as appropriate,” it added. On Saturday, stampedes at various centres of the NIS recruitment exercise across the country led to the death of many of the job seekers, including pregnant mothers. In Abuja alone, seven job applicants lost their lives during a stampede at the overcrowded 60,000 capacity Abuja National Stadium. Only 4,556 vacancies were advertised by the NIS, but 520,000 applicants registered to write the recruitment test. Each applicant was required to pay a N1,000 processing fee to be eligible to participate. A PREMIUM TIMES report estimated that the NIS made at least N520 million from this compulsory levy imposed on applicants. The extortion of the job seekers was done in flagrant disregard of the directive by the House of Representatives that government agency should desist from charging applicants taking part in recruitment exercises. However, in his reaction to Saturday’s tragedy, Mr. Moro attributed the deaths to the applicants’ “impatience.” “The applicants lost their lives due to impatience; they did not follow the laid down procedures spelt out to them before the exercise,” Mr. Moro had said. “Many of them jumped through the fences of affected centres and did not conduct themselves in an orderly manner to make the exercise a smooth one,” Mr. Moro had added. Mr. Moro’s comment sparked anger across Nigeria on Sunday with many citizens taking to social media to call for his immediate sack. The statement from these eminent Nigerians appears a response to that call. The petitioners described Mr. Moro’s reaction as “a callous disregard for the lives of Nigerians” incompatible with his office.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 12:02:50 +0000
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