Abba Moro, Minister of the Interior, apologised
to Nigerians and said he could not abdicate responsibility for the
circumstances that led to deaths of 16
people during the recruitment into the
Nigerian Immigration Service in eight centres in the country.
Moro’s statement on when he and Comptroller General
of Immigration, David Parradang, appeared before the Senate committee on interior that investigates the issue on
Thursday 27th march 2014.
"Mr Chairman and Distinguished Senators, we
are deeply grieved and saddened about the way events turned out. We express our
sincere regrets once again," Moro told the committee, chaired
by Senator Atiku Bagudu.
He said that the ministry and the NIS "made
appropriate and adequate preparations" to save the agency from the
negative image of job racketeering which had plagued it over the years, "but as most things in administrative
and human conditions, the yield curve of expected outcome is mostly
undefined."
"My heart goes out to the families of those
who have lost their dear loved ones. I sincerely sympathise with those injured.
I share in their grief. I share in their pains," Moro said. "The
loss of these young Nigerians, who are needed as a critical human resource
factor for nation building is most regrettable. As the minister of interior,
under whose purview this unfortunate exercise took place, I cannot abdicate my responsibility.
The buck stops at my table," he added.
In turn, the Secretary of the Civil Defence, Fire,
Immigration and Prisons Services board, Sylvanus Tapgun, told the committee that funding was
a major problem for the exercise.
Tapgun added that the estimated cost of the event
was N201mln, but consultant for the screening, Drexel Limited, released only
N45mln while making some N710mln.
A permanent member of the board, Mustapha Zakariya,
as well as Parradang, alleged that the unfortunate recruitment conducted by the
NIS was not approved by the board.
Zakariya also said that the decision to hire the
consultant that conducted the exercise was unilaterally taken by Moro.
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