Weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the suspension of all activities related to the recent recruitment exercise of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), most of the affected personnel are yet to know their fate.
Sequel to this directive, the NIS headquarters has instructed state commands and heads of training institutes to recall all newly recruited persons sent for training at the Immigration Service Training Schools at Orlu, Kano and Ohoada.
As a result of the suspended employment exercise, the future of about 5,000 Nigerians, including candidates of families that lost their loved ones in the botched 2014 recruitment exercise, now hangs in the balance.
It would be recalled that following the tragedy that trailed the 2014 recruitment exercise where more than a dozen job seekers lost their lives, the then president Goodluck Jonathan constituted a Presidential Committee on Immigration Recruitment on March 26, 2014, to carry out a fresh exercise.
However, the new administration of Buhari says that due process was not followed in the employment exercise and, as a result, called it off.
Now, forty-five relatives of 15 applicants who lost their lives in the 2014 recruitment exercise are calling on the Service to, not only pay their seven months’ salary arrears, but also allow them undertake their training exercise.
The forty-five persons got automatic employment - three from the family of each deceased applicant - into the NIS, following the death of their relatives during the 2014 ill-fated employment exercise.
However, seven months after their employment letters were given to them, the people have not been posted, inducted or paid any money.
A group consisting of the affected people, known as the members of the Immigration Service recruitment deceased family, told Daily Trust  on Sunday that the NIS sidelined them and went ahead to conduct another recruitment exercise without making any provision for them.
The leader of the group, Ibanga Edidiong Ezekiel, said: “45 of us got automatic employment after President Goodluck Jonathan set up a presidential committee to look into the matter and compensate three members of each family that lost an applicant in the recruitment exercise.”
Ibanga, who lost his wife during the recruitment exercise, said that they got their employment letters in March 2015 and carried out their documentation process at the Ministry of Interior.
“After the documentation, they [NIS] asked us to go home that they would soon contact us to send us for either induction in the state commands or training exercise.
“But three months after receiving our appointment letters, the then Comptroller-General of Immigration, David Paradang, recruited some people and bypassed us and sent them to different states’ command to resume work.”
Daily Trust on Sunday’s findings revealed that those employed by the immediate past Comptroller-General were not given any employment letter as the Board of Prisons, Immigration, Civil Defence and the Fire Service refused to approve their appointments. Nevertheless, the NIS issued them posting letters to state commands four months ago.
They were mobilised for training while the candidates who got the automatic employment were left unattended to for seven months.
One of the affected persons, Benjamin Sunday, who lost his younger sister in the 2014 botched exercise, said: “We are suspecting  foul play somewhere because when the other set went for induction, we should have been called as well to join them.
“When we went to our respective states, the state commands of NIS directed us to the headquarters in Abuja and when we got to Abuja, they asked us to hold on. It is seven months now and we have not heard anything until we got the news of the suspension of the recruitment exercise.”
A source at the NIS headquarters confided in our reporter that there was actually something fishy because there was no explanation for the omission of the candidates of the deceased family from training.
“If you go to the admin, you will find out that the files of those who got the automatic employment are put on top, followed by those that got injured before the others who were successful from the proper recruitment process,” the source said.
It is unclear if the recently recruited personnel have started receiving salaries or not before the suspension of their employment as officials refused to speak on the issue.
Another twist to the issue is that the relatives of the dead applicants who got the automatic slots are insisting that they are excluded from the list of those whose appointments were suspended.
Ibanga said: “The president cannot suspend our employment. Our situation is different. Ours was a means of palliative following the death of our loved ones. Our findings revealed that someone somewhere is not happy we got the job.”
The Public Relations Officer of the NIS, Ekpedeme King, declined to speak when contacted for comments.
He told Daily Trust on Sunday that he was not in the position to speak on the issue, adding: “It [the question] is beyond me. Anything you want can be found out from the ministry [of interior] or the board. If you ask me any question on Immigration matter that I am authorised to talk about, but not this one.”
When contacted, the Director of Press, Ministry of Interior, Yusuf Isiaka Alhaji, said the directive was for the recruitment process to be stopped, adding that he was not aware of the exclusion of any group.
When asked if the ministry will pay the salary arrears of the sacked personnel, he said: “I am not aware of the exclusion of any group. I don’t know if anyone is owed salary arrears or not”
For now, he says that the NIS is waiting “for further directives.”

http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/immigration-tragedy-relatives-of-the-dead-seek-7-month-salary-arrears-posting/112472.html

Cc: lalastclala

I Can't Believe This...........

So Someone Sabotaged Jonathan's effort in offering job palliatives to the relatives of the dead applicants??

Well Jonathan has always been a good man, but his friends in government pulled him down...

Dear Buhari you just have to be careful with your friends/Associates/Ministers/Personal Assistants.