Minister apologises for NIS deaths

Lagos - Interior Minister, Abba Moro, has
accepted full responsibility for the death of 16
applicants at the Nigeria Immigration Service
(NIS) recruitment exercise last month.
Addressing journalists, the minister said the
incident was unfortunate and begged for
forgiveness from affected families and Nigerians.

“Whatever outcome we got from this exercise,
positive or negative, I am the minister and I take
full responsibility for it. The deaths of these
young Nigerians, who would have added value to
the human resource of the country, is highly
regrettable. I crave the highest level of
understanding of every Nigerian. If we had
foreseen these deaths, we would have stopped
the exercise,” Moro said.
The minister said the recruitment exercise was
organized with good intentions to afford every
eligible citizen the opportunity to be employed.

“I want Nigerians to understand the motive and
intention behind the entire process of an open
and transparent exercise. This was the first of its
kind in the ministry and it was intended primarily
to give employment to Nigerians, irrespective of
background and connections.”
He explained that after the botched exercise,
intense preparations for a successful exercise in
2014 had commenced.
He said that the Recruitment Board of the
ministry met many times and decisions about the
procedures for conducting the exercise were
taken.

There have been calls by nongovernmental
organizations and pressure groups for the sack
of the minister over the deaths of applicants last
month.
The Immigration Service Board and other
relevant agencies involved in the March 15
recruitment exercise have all blamed the minister
for the tragedy.