*Job Slots Offered To Jonathan’s Mum, Wife, Others
*Reps Ask Uzoma To Stay Action
A controversial recruitment exercise
which allegedly favoured a section of the country is going on at the Nigerian
Immigration Service with jobs slots being secretly allocated to top government
officials, sources told Daily Trust.
This is happening just three months
to the exit of Controller General of the service Mrs. Rose Chinyere Uzoma, who
is accused of favouring her kinsmen from the Southeast in the distribution of
the vacancies.
A source in the House of
Representatives said already the committee on Federal Character has opened
investigations and asked the Immigration service to suspend the exercise.
The source said Uzoma appeared before
the House committee last week to defend accusations of failure to publicly
advertise vacancies and giving undue favouritism to the Southeast.
Uzoma, according to the source, told
the lawmakers that the service did not advertise the jobs so as not to
unknowingly employ terrorists, but the lawmakers reminded her that even the
Military and Police are advertising their vacancies in spite of the prevailing
insurgency.
She also said she had already
obtained approval from the Head of Service of the Federation to employ 4,560
people.
The committee therefore asked her to
provide details of the present distribution of the Immigration work force based
on state of origin.
A committee member said they found
out that out of over 25,000 Immigration staff, Uzoma’s husband’s state of
origin Imo has the highest number with 1,190; Kano has 350; Lagos has 400;
while Sokoto has the least with 200.
The committee therefore ordered her
to stay action on the recruitment until she provides details on how she intends
to share out the slots, but with priority to be given to the states that at
present have low representation in the service.
Daily Trust learnt that before the
lawmakers tried to pull the brakes, Uzoma had already offered hundreds of job
slots to top government functionaries, including the Presidency which is
offered 250 slots, Jonathan’s mother 40 slots, First Lady 100 slots, Interior
Minister Abba Moro 100 slots, two commissioners of the Immigration board 30
slots each, and the Federal Character Commission 250 slots.
A source said the Federal Character
Commission was given those job slots for giving the Immigration service waiver
on the advertisement of the vacancies.
Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati
did not respond to text a message sent to him asking for his comments on the
alleged offers of Immigration job slots to the Presidency and Jonathan’s mother
and wife.
For its part, the Federal Character
Commission, through its spokesman Usman Jimada, denied being compromised by the
Immigration Service. Jimada added that the commission will continue to pursue
its mandate of fair and equitable recruitment in a manner that is transparent
and beneficial to all Nigerians.
When asked for comments, spokesman
for the Immigration service Mr. Olumbar Joachim said he was not aware of the
Presidency getting offers to fill certain vacancies but added that there was
nothing wrong with the Presidency or other officials making recommendations to
the service.
“I am not aware of that and I don’t
think it is correct,” he said, adding: “But for the Presidency giving
recommendations, it is a different thing. Assuming that you, you know this
person is of good character and all that, it’s a different thing. You are
recommending somebody; it is not as if it is mandatory that that person would
have to be recruited. What it means is that you are saying this person is not a
criminal, you are saying that this person is a Nigerian.”
Joachim also denied that the CG is
recruiting massively from her state of origin Abia and her husband’s state Imo.
He said the exercise was open to scrutiny from the Federal Character Commission
since it is mandatory that every state filled its quota.
“You cannot say madam is from Abia
her husband is from Imo, Immigration is recruiting 1500 now Imo is producing
500; it is not possible anybody will ever do that,” he added.
He said all state controllers of
Immigration were involved in the recruitment exercise.
Joachim said also the service
introduced stringent vetting measures including having a guarantor to ensure it
does not admit criminals, referring to a recent incident where an Immigration
officer was arrested on suspicion of being a Boko Haram member.
“One thing is certain, the service
will not engage in any exercise that will endanger the lives of innocent
Nigerians. Two, considering the situation we are in now we will go the extra
mile to ensure that criminals and terrorists are not brought into the service,”
he added.
‘This cannot stand’
When Daily Trust contacted chairman
of the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character, Rep. Ahmed
Idris (ACN, Plateau), he said they have opened investigations into the
“illegal” recruitments in the Immigration service.
“We have met twice with the
Comptroller General, the last was on Saturday and she told us that they are
recruiting 4,500 new officers out of which 1,200 is for senior cadres or degree
holders while about 300 is for Diploma and secondary school leavers,” he
said.
“Based on the reports we got, we have
asked for their nominal roll and her last recruitment which will be given in a
template that will reflect state by state distribution and even local
governments. Section 4 of the 1999 constitution is very clear about Federal
character in every government organisation and we won’t allow anybody who
violates it to go scot-free.”
On whether the committee will reverse
the recruitment, Idris said: “Certainly we will not only reverse it but we will
go further and apply for their prosecution for perpetuating illegality.”
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