The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCPCO) has raised the alert over the latest call for application from Nigerian Youths for recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) as a continuation of the despicable scamming of jobless youth by the government.
The APCPCO said in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday that this latest attempt, being supervised by a Presidential committee, comes on the heels of the March 15, 2014 exercise which ended in disaster across the various centres in the country.
The statement signed by Garba Shehu, Director of Media and Publicity of the campaign, aside the payment of one thousand naira from each of the five hundred and twenty thousand (520,000) applicants, there was very shoddy preparations made for the exercise.
Shehu said it was shocking that the input of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) was not sought as the Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mr. David Paradang, revealed at the National Assembly hearing that, for all his years in the service, there had not been a time that the recruitment of personnel in the Inspectorate cadre was done outside the NIS.
In other words, Shehu said, the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, solely supervised that botched recruitment exercise which resulted in the death of nineteen Nigerian youths, whose only transgression was that they trusted their country for employment.
“Furthermore, in a desperate move to placate the victims and still make Mr. Abba Moro keep his job – for obvious political reasons – President Goodluck Jonathan promised each family of the dead victims, three automatic jobs. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, 14th October, 2014, seven months after the tragic incident, there was a protest march in Benin City against the unfulfilled Presidential promise. One of the Victims, Mr. Timothy Omoagbon, said that since the death of his wife, life had been unbearable.
“It would be recalled that before the March 2014 scandalous exercise, there was also a recruitment exercise some years ago (under President Jonathan) which was marred by accusation of lopsidedness and nepotism. Meanwhile, four of the victims – Patience Omezie, Kasim Suleiman, Okojie Arabamen, Godwin Morka – have jointly filed suit against the Interior Minister, Mr. Abba Moro. Among their prayers is a declaration by the Court that Moro is unfit and improper to hold public office in Nigeria having regard to his callous statement that the Nigerians who died and those injured during the exercise were careless.
“That Mr Abba Moro is still in charge of the Interior Ministry is an attestation to President Jonathan’s unwillingness to subsume narrow political interest under national interest.
“What is, however, galling in the entire saga is that another recruitment exercise is being planned when the actors in the last tragic exercise have not been penalized for their questionable conduct. The President made promises that he knew was mere bogey; it is akin to dancing on the grave of the dead.
“We consider this act as insensitive, callous and reprehensible. The Nigerian people do not deserve this ignoble treatment from their leaders. The promise of employment ought not to be as a result of the loss of lives. The welfare of the citizenry, in the legible stipulation of the Constitution, still remains the primary responsibility of any government. We hold the Jonathan administration accountable for this failure. This has proven as a confirmation of the administration’s legacy of scandalous impudence.
“On our part, we promise to respect the dignity of the Nigerian people; we shall conduct the affairs of State that under our government, no Nigerian shall be oppressed. Welfare of the Citizens shall remain the cornerstone of business as leaders.”