Despite taking responsibility for the deadly Immigration Service recruitment in which 19 applicants died March 15, interior minister, Abba Moro, has vowed not to reimburse the job seekers who were made to pay N1, 000 each for the exercise.
Mr. Moro and a firm he personally selected to conduct pre-recruitment online registration raised more than N700 million from the failed exercise as more than 710, 000 applicants entered for the test.
President Goodluck Jonathan ordered a cancellation of the recruitment after the deaths and ordered a new examination to be overseen by a government body.
An investigation by the Senate revealed several violations in the planning and implementation of the recruitment exercise. A report of the probe is being awaited.
In a letter to Lagos-based lawyer, Femi Falana, who had asked the minister to reimburse the candidates, Mr. Moro repeated his earlier claim that he did not personally raise any money, as such could not refund any.
Mr. Moro claimed no recruitment fee was imposed on the applicant who applied for employment in the ministry of interior.
“I did not extort N700 million from helpless Nigerians who applied for employment in the ministry of interior, no recruitment fee was imposed on applicants,” he said in the letter dated April 9.
The minister said the ministry of interior only employed the services of a consulting company to assist in processing applications online to ease the unusual bureaucratic bottlenecks associated with such excises.
Media reports that he extorted money from poor applicants were “misrepresentations”, he said.
“In order to achieve result an online Portal (website) was emplaced, applicants were then required to access the portal through the purchase of 1000 scratch card,” he said.
“For the records, neither I, not the ministry of interior, nor the Board of Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services nor the Nigeria Immigration Service, was involved in the purchase of the scratch cards to access the portal,” he said.
“In fact, the board and the tenders’ board of the ministry of interior had approved that none other than the consultant should be involved in the process of purchasing the scratch cards and the processing of applications.”
In a rejoinder, Mr. Falana accused the minster of being responsible for the tragic exercise.
“Owing to the fact that you appointed a consulting company which extorted processing fee of 700,000 applicants you are vicariously liable for the actions of your agents including the tragedy which characterized the recruitment exercise,” he said.
“Having publicly accepted responsibility for the loss of the precious lives of 20 of the applicants, you cannot turn round to wash off your hands like Pontius Pilate,” Mr, Falana said.
Mr. Falana said as a minster of government which has a duty to pay unemployment benefits to citizens, Mr. Moro cannot be allowed to convert funds extorted from job seekers.
“We have no alternative than to reiterate our demand for the immediate refund of the said sum of 7000,000 not later than April 18,” the letter reads.
Source: Premium Times
No comments:
Post a Comment