ABUJA—Indications emerged last night that the immediate past Interior Minister, Mr. Abba Moro, tried but failed to hijack the rescheduled recruitment of 1,600 Nigerians into the Nigerian Immigration Service.


Investigations by Vanguard indicate that Moro, whose ministry supervised Immigrations, Prisons and Civil Defence, had objected to the conduct of the recruitment into NIS by the Presidential Committee raised by former President, Goodluck Jonathan.

Vanguardinvestigation further revealed that Moro tried in vain to stop the presidential committee from recruiting the new hands by raising some legal issues to justify his position, but was overruled by the then Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke.

Moro’s attempt to take charge of the new recruitment exercise followed the death of no fewer than 15 NIS job applicants and the loss of at least N1 billion by those who had to part with N1,000 each as a condition for taking part in the controversial and tragic process.

Documents obtained byVanguardin Abuja yesterday, indicated that the former minister, in a memo dated February 17, and addressed to the Attorney-General of the Federation, objected to allowing the presidential committee to handle the recruitment in conjunction with the Immigrations and Prisons Services Board, IPSB, saying it could be illegal.

The memo, with reference No. MI/HMO/S.373/11/25, signed by Moro and addressed to the HAFG, the former minister claimed that neither the presidential committee nor the IPSB had the expressed power to venture into the recruitment of staff for the NIS.

Findings byVanguardshow that the NIS Controller-General, Mr. David Paradang, who was desirous of getting more fresh hands into the service, fell a victim of the recruitment exercise by making the board to ratify the appointment of the 1,600 staff, following the clearance given by the Attorney-General that the exercise was in order.

Paradang had requested that a total of 4,556 officers and men should be recruited to shore up the NIS operations, but the former Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, overruled him, saying that there was no money to support that large number.

Rather than get the 4,556 staff at once, the minister directed that the number should be spread over three years.

The NIS boss was suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari last week over the controversial exercise and is yet to be recalled.

Aba wat