The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Immigration tragedy

  • Immigration tragedy: EFCC detains Moro, two others

    Immigration tragedy: EFCC detains Moro, two others

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday detained a former Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, a former Permanent Secretary and a director over N650million immigration recruitment scandal.

    The three suspects were re-invited by the EFCC ahead of their arraignment in court on Tuesday.

    The fate of a former Comptroller-General of Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr. David Parradang, was however unknown.

    About 6.5million applied for 5,000 immigration jobs, but the conduct of the test in March 2014 led to the death of several applicants during stampede in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Minna.

    Each applicant paid a non-refundable application fee of N1, 000.

    Although Moro recently blamed the former Immigration boss for the incidents, those loyal to Parradang had earlier traced the tragedy to Moro and his alleged business partners.

  • EFCC grills Abba Moro over N700m job levies

    EFCC grills Abba Moro over N700m job levies

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday interrogated a former Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, for hours over alleged mismanagement of N700million levies collected from applicants for vacancies in the Nigerian Immigration Service.

    The questioning of the ex-minister was said to be the first in the series of interaction he will have with the commission.

    He is expected to return to the EFCC for another round of interrogation on Thursday.

    The anti-graft agency had earlier grilled the immediate past Comptroller-General of Immigration Service, Mr. David Parradang and the Secretary to the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prison Service Board, Mr. Sylvanus Tapgun.

    It was Moro’s turn on Tuesday and he had an eight-hour audience with EFCC operatives.

     

  • Immigration tragedy: Why I accepted responsibility, by Moro

    Interior Minister, Comrade Abba Moro, has explained why he took responsibility of the recruitment by the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS), in which about 20 persons died.

    He said he could not deny responsibility because, besides being the minister under whose watch the recruitment was conducted, the buck about the exercise stopped at his table.

    “The loss of these young Nigerians, who are needed as a critical human resource factor for nation building, is most regrettable. As the Minister of Interior, under whose purview this unfortunate exercise took place, I cannot abdicate my responsibility. The buck stops at my table,” Moro said.

  • On the Immigration tragedy

    SIR: The immigration recruitment debacle raises a lot of questions and says much about how low we have sunk as a people. First, those in leadership positions in this country (all of them without exception) love power but lack the basic knowledge of the responsibilities that go with it. In Nigeria, when a minister does what he/she is employed to do, you’ll see sycophants taking advertorials in national dailies to sing their praises to high heavens, but when the situations arise to question their competence and rationality, they blame every other person but themselves.

    And in all of this, what would Okonjo-Iweala have to say about over 600,000 jobless Nigerians pursuing 4,556 jobs until some of them met their death in an economy she is always quick to paint in bright colours?

    Now we also have a clue to why crime is on the increase: the government is taking money from jobless applicants.The conscience of those ruling us have taken leave of them. Now if that is not corruption, then that word has lost its meaning. And Jonathan has the audacity to tell the whole world that corruption in Nigeria is exagerated!

    Just some weeks ago, the President of Zimbabwe said you have to bribe your way to get anything done in Nigeria. What other proof do we need? Whither our morality? The message Jonathan is sending accross is that to get anything from government, you must first be prepared to suffer a tragedy like loosing a limb, be blinded, or sacrifice a member of your family.

    If anyone thinks Jonathan will sack Moro, that  person would be greatly disappointed because President Jonathan cannot differentiate between his ego and morality; he looks at everything through the prism of politics.

    I’m surprised Olisah Metuh has not blamed those who died for dying just to discredit the Jonathan government, after all, he just has to say something to convince his principal he is working, even if it exposes him as a man who is weak in thinking. To Jonathan, those dead are just another figure. Life goes on. It is all politics.-

    • Simon Oladapo,

    Ogbomoso.