Moro Apologised For NIS Recruitment Tragedy

 Minister of the Interior, Abba Moro, apologised to Nigerians and said he could not abdicate responsibility for the circumstances that led to 16 deaths during the recruitment into the Nigerian Immigration Service in eight centres in the country.
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Minister of Interior Abba Moro

Moro said this on Thursday when he and Comptroller General of Immigration, David Parradang, appeared before the Senate committee on interior that investigates the issue. 

"Mr Chairman and Distinguished Senators, we are deeply grieved and saddened about the way events turned out. We express our sincere regrets once again," Moro told the committee, chaired by Senator Atiku Bagudu.

He said that the ministry and the NIS "made appropriate and adequate preparations" to save the agency from the negative image of job racketeering which had plagued it over the years, "but as most things in administrative and human conditions, the yield curve of expected outcome is mostly undefined".

"My heart goes out to the families of those who have lost their dear loved ones. I sincerely sympathise with those injured. I share in their grief. I share in their pains," Moro said. "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," he added.

In turn, the Secretary of the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services board, Sylvanus Tapgun, told the committee that funding was a major problem for the exercise.

According to Tapgun, the estimated cost of the event was N201mln, but consultant for the screening, Drexel Limited, released only N45mln while making some N710mln.

A permanent member of the board, Mustapha Zakariya, as well as Parradang, alleged that the unfortunate recruitment conducted by the NIS was not approved by the board.

Zakariya also said that the decision to hire the consultant that conducted the exercise was unilaterally taken by Moro.
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