Specifically, willing applicants were instructed to pay, in cash, half a million Naira to get a place on an imaginary Ministerial list being compiled in the office of the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro.
The scammers , apparently playing on the desperation of most parents and guardians,whose wards have been home for years after the completion of the compulsory post- graduation National Youth Service Corps,NYSC, programme tell their victims to end the endless years of joblessness by paying half a million for a slot in a ministerial list being compiled in the Area 1office of the Interior Minister's office.
Desperate applicants or their parents were told that the Minister always has a list in which requests from the Presidency, National Assembly, Royal fathers and religious leaders were accommodated. In addition , the Minister, being a grassroots man, they claim always take care of his political interest through such lists.
To convince doubting prospective victims, the fraudsters always refer their victims to the 2012 recruitment exercise conducted by the Nigerian Security Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC ,during which the minister assisted his Idoma people with job opportunities.
The Federal Capital Territory,FCT, Command of the Corps has over 60 per cent of Idomas on its pay roll. The fraudsters, argue that having convinced his Idoma people that he is ready to take care of their interests, the minister , who is rumored to be one of those eying the Benue state government house, intend to use the immigration appointment to " settle" other ethnic groups in the state.
But the activities of the fraudsters does not have territorial limitation . Sunday Newswatch investigations revealed that their activities cut across the length and breadth of the country. And they seem to be steps ahead of their victims.
Sunday Newswatch investigations revealed that one of the conditions the fraudsters give their prospective victims is to pay the mandatory N500,000 in cash. This , it was gathered, was to prevent and trace of the transaction should the victim wake up from his slumber.
The Federal Government, shortly after the ill- fated recruitment exercise had cancelled it and mandated a committee headed by the Chairperson of the Federal Civil Service Commission,FCSC,to work out a transparent modality for the exercise.
Contacted for comments on the development, Mr George Udoh, Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of Interior said after the March recruitment exercise was cancelled, government set up a committee and the the proposed recruitment exercise was not domicile in the Ministry.
He disclosed that there is no ministerial list, anywhere and the Nigerians should be vigilant adding that the media should help in sensitizing the public on the activities of the fraudsters.
Employment racketeering is not strange to the Ministry of Interior and parastatals under it. In July 2008, no fewer than 17 applicants lost their lives in a recruitment exercise. Official figures were over 195,000 applicants jostling for 3000 available vacancies all over the country. The outcry then was resounding and the Comptroller General was made the sacrificial lamb; she lost her job few months after she assumed the mantle of leadership.
Applicant,majority of whom came to the stadium in their sports wears in March this year,got the first shock of their lives when they got to the entrance of the 60,000 capacity National Stadium, Abuja only to discover that some markets were more organized than the so- called recruitment exercise .
Abuja was not an isolated case, the situation was like that in all the 37 recruitment centers where the capacity of the venues were stretched to their limits.
Sunday Newswatch investigations revealed that security agencies and parastatals under the Ministry of Interior were not formally notified until few hours to the exercise. In a memo marked CDFIPB/951/1 dated 11th March,2014 titled "Request for Security officials for the NIS recruitment exercise " and signed by S. D Tapgun, Director/Secretary of the Defence, Fire, Immigration & Prisons Servise Board , Tapgun attached a list of examination centers and number of applicants.
That was after D. S. Parradang,the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service had in a letter dated 9th September 2013 addressed to the Secretary Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Service Board, CDFIPB ,Abuja. It was titled;" Re:Application for appointment of qualified persons into the Nigeria Immigration Service". It was for the attention of Dr. R. K Attahiru(Director). In the seven paragraph letter, Parradang said;" I wish to draw your attention to an advertisement which has just been brought to my notice , calling for application of suitably qualified persons for appointment into category 'A'(Superintendent cadre) and B(Inspectorate cadre) of the Nigeria Immigration Service in today's Daily Trust-Monday, 9th September, 2013 at page seven(7) (A copy herewith attached for ease of reference.) I wish to further state that the advertisement for employment took me by surprise and the Agency which I head (I.e.The Nigeria Immigration Service)
Parradang concluded the letter like a prophet;" Accordingly, I feel and request that the advertisement be withdrawn to allow for full consultation in order to avoid a repeat of the experiences of the past recruitment exercise".
Parradang was not alone in advising the Board and indeed the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro to tread on the path of caution. The former Chief of Staff to the President in a memo to the President titled" Re: Extortion of monies from harpless unemployed youths by the Federal Ministry of Interior in the guise of employment recruitment and received in the President's office on 11th December, 2013 said the Head of Civil Service of the Federation be directed to issue a definite directive to all Federal Government Agencies to , forthwith, desist from direct or indirect extortion of applicants during recruitment and that the Federal Civil Service Commission be directed to bring up a holistic and adaptable recruitment guidelines for consideration and possible adoption by all Federal agencies . Saturday Newswatch authoritatively gathered that the President acted on the Chief of Staff's memo by directing the Minister of Labour and Productivity and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, to bring the issue as a memo to the Federal Executive Council. Matt Aikhionbare, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Admin) drew the attention of the Minister of Labour and Productivity and the SGF to the President's directive in a memo with Ref.PRES/94/MLEP/70/81/SGF/-3/591 dated December 30,2013 .
But Comrade Moro will have none of this. He had with the assistance of a company identified by Tapgun a Director and Secretary of the Board of CDFIPB when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives sidelined both the Board and the Comptroller General of Immigration in the ill- fated recruitment exercise.
Tapgun named Rexel Technical Global Nigeria Limited as the consultant used by Moro to"fix everything including a N1,000 fees , which they claimed was administrative charges". A search report on the company at the Corporate Affairs Commission , CAC, few days after the ill- fated exercise, however, revealed that the company was not registered with the CAC.
Newswatch Newspaper on 18th March, this year wrote Comrade Moro requesting the Minister to furnish it with the name and contact address of the Consultant. It was signed by Akin Orimolade, Editor, Northern Operations for the newspaper . It was received in the office of the Minister on 19th March ,2014.
On 22nd March, 2014, a staff of the minister e- mailed a reply dated March 21, 2014 and signed personally by the Minister , Comrade Abba Moro. It reads;" Your un referenced letter of 18 th March, 2014 received in my office on the 18th March, 2014 but brought to my attention on the 20th March 2014 refers.
From information available to me , the name of the consulting firm to which the e- recruitment project was contracted is Drexel Tech. Nigeria Limited. And contact address of the company is 8B, Nun street, Maitama, Abuja. Hoping this will help you, thanks. " Indeed, the name supplied by the Minister was different from that supplied by Tapgun.
One of the applicants , Miss Tonia Okonkwo ,however, informed this newspaper than none of the applicants knew those behind the consultancy firm. According to her, interested applicants were told to register on line by visiting a website: http:/recruitment.cofipb.gov.ng/registration/select to fill in their bio data after which they are expected to click the submit button. After this , a payment web page is opened where they are to chose mode of payment and a transaction is generated and printed. This , according to her was what applicants took to the bank for the payment after which an identification number with which the acknowledgement slip would be printed is given to applicants .
This clumsy arrangement perhaps informed the inability of the Minister to know the actual number of applicants invited for the recruitment and the shoddy arrangement made for the test. For example, the question paper brought to the National Stadium Abuja was grossly inadequate . A business man was said to have brought a photocopier to the gate of the stadium and printing it for applicants at a token fee of N1,000. Such were the exploitation the applicants were subjected to before bedlam.
But Comrade Moro in his initial reaction after his attention was drawn to the tragedy that followed the exercise said;"they refused to follow laid down procedures spelt out to them before the exercise and many jumped through fences of the affected center and did not conduct themselves in an orderly manner".
Abuja based Human Rights lawyer, Barrister Esther Uzoma said Comrade Moro should be arrested immediately and tried for culpable homicide for the willful exposure of Nigerian Youths to situations that are likely going to cause death. Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission concurred with Uzoma in his twitter handle. He described it as "corporate manslaughter".
The Nigeria Labour Congress , Kaduna said it was an unacceptable development that runs against best employment practices as contained in conventions and resolutions of International Labour Organisation of which Nigeria was signatory to". While the Trade Union Congress ,TUC,described it as a national disaster that victims paid the supreme price trying to be more useful to the country
--SUNDAY NEWSWATCH
No comments:
Post a Comment