Though the minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro has accepted the blame for the poorly conducted Immigration recruitment exercise that led to the death of at least 16 job seekers on March 15, 2014, he seems unperturbed by persistent calls for his sack. Defending his decision not to resign during an interview, the minister said his continuous stay in President Jonathan’s cabinet would help unravel the circumstances leading to the botched exercise.
Controversy has continued to trail the ill-fated Saturday March 15, 2014 recruitment exercise into the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), an agency under your watch. Do you have any regrets over the causalities and deaths recorded?
I take responsibility for whatever happened during the exercise and I did say it was our efforts to enthrone transparency and ensure that everybody has a fair opportunity to secure a job in spite of their background, political or business contact that led to it. There is no way I would have deliberately wanted to conduct a recruitment exercise to get people killed. I earnestly regret the deaths.
The openness we adopted was from the background of services in the ministry of interior being accused of scams, it was aimed at curbing job racketeering and the issue of money–for-job, which ranges from N300,000 to N500,000 for a slot. I will ordinarily appeal to Nigerians for understanding over this matter.
For me, I will say it’s a personal loss because the exercise in the first place took place within the ministry and was organised by it and it services. And so, whatever consequences positive or negative that have been recorded fall back on me. I as the minister of interior under whose purview the exercise took place, where promising Nigerians lost their lives, therefore take full responsibility.
I want to repeat here as I have stated before that the death of these young Nigerians that would have added value to the human resource asset of this nation and to their families is regrettable. My heart goes out to their families because I am a father and I know how it feels to lose a child. In fact, if I have the capacity to turn back the hands of time, I will certainly do so and these children will be alive today. On this note, I crave the highest understanding of all Nigerians to know that my intention was very noble and if we had foreseen this tragedy, we would have stopped the exercise.
The Immigration boss has strongly dissociated himself from the ill–fated exercise, alleging that he was side-lined throughout the planning process. How true is this?
Let me state that denying responsibility for a programme in which you participated does not eliminate the truth. I have said and for the records I want to say again that the exercise we embarked on, on March 15, was sequel to a botched exercise in December 2012 and from December 2012 to March, 15, 2014, series of meetings were held, the Board met severally, first, to consider and approve the ministry’s tender as well as access the proposal for the engagement of a consultant for the e-recruitment. Subsequently, the board met and adopted the template for the recruitment.
These meetings gave birth to the signing of an agreement with the consultant and it is on record that the board directed that its secretariat should liaise with the legal officer of the ministry and the consultant to implement the e-recruitment agreement. It is also on record that between January 30 and February 7, 2014, series of meetings were held by the steering committee that comprises officials from the ministry, Board and NIS officials and this committee took decisions about procedures and the mechanism for conducting the exercise of March 15 were also agreed on. There are minutes to this effect. This leaves me to wonder why some persons are distancing themselves from the unexpected tragedy. I state here that all stakeholders were in the know of the date and time as well as the venue of the exercise. I leave Nigerians to be the judge here. It is interesting to note that the Comptroller General of the NIS, Secretary of the Board and some Board members were members of the steering committee but the Minister of Interior was not a member and it was only their recommendations that were communicated to me for approval.
If all this happened, why then are your subordinates shifting the blame on you?
I am afraid the person who is denying what he knows is in a better position to say why he is denying what he knows. Between me and you, I am aware that the Comptroller General of the NIS addressed the press on Thursday, March 6, 2014, intimating applicants of the approved date of March 15, it is on record. Again, I don’t want to join issues with anybody because documents, cameras and even recorders don’t tell lies.
Would it be right to say you did not operate an open door policy during the planning process and did you at any time turn down their recommendations?
No. For instance, the implementation process was solely the task of the steering committee of which I am not a member. To this end, we had no grounds to disagree. During my presentation to the Senate, i attached the approved minutes of the committee to documents I presented to the Senate. If you look at my presentation to the Senate committee on Interior, I did not subtract from the recommendation that was made to me and I did not add I simply approved the recommendations and/suggestions that were tendered.
So, would you give in to unrelenting calls for your resignation and prosecution by individuals, labour unions and Civil Society Groups, NLC among others?
I have registered my regrets and condolences to the bereaved families and other victims and I strongly believe that my presence will assist in unravelling the true situation of things and proffer solutions. Above all, it is not in my character to abandon an unfinished project whether in public office or in private life.
Sir, you were recently summoned by the President to clear the air on the allegations by your subordinates. Is your job as a cabinet minister at stake?
I have no fears about my Job and this is because I feel I took the best decision of salvaging the NIS from recruitment scandals that had rocked it over the years until circumstances in some quarters led to the tragic loss of innocent lives.
Coming to the question of funds, it is very easy for people to point accusing fingers at others when it borders on money. To start with, I had no personal relationship with the agency picked to conduct the exercise. Until late 2012, I had nothing in common with the executives of the said company. I got in contact with them following the fact that their parent company had a subsisting contract with the ministry of interior after which it was renewed.
I also want to place it on record that it was also for the fear of people dabbling into collection and appropriation of recharge card fees that the Board in its wisdom took a decision at its 36th meeting that neither the ministry nor the NIS or the Board should be involved in the collection and management of the funds.
I want you to get it very clear here that the Board that I chair in the ministry of interior superintending over the NIS and their employment took this decision at its 36th meeting and hence our decision to leave the responsibility to the consulting firm.
For the records, i want to again point out that Drusel Tech Nigeria Limited quoted N1,500 to N2,000 and proposed a sharing formula to the government, immigration and the ministry but we out rightly rejected the proposals because we didn’t see the e-registration as a business venture. It was not intended to trade the poverty of the common man to raise funds for the federal government, immigration service or the ministry of interior. I had nothing to do with the funds generated from the processing fee.
But did you chair the panel that awarded the contract to Drusel Tech Limited and did you adhere strictly to due process?
The award of the contract for consultancy was done by the Tender’s Board and I am not a member of that particular committee. I am the Minister of Interior who is chairman of the Board, superintending over the appointments, promotions and discipline of staff of the ministry and the parastatals. From available documents from their meetings, I had no hand in that bid. It was solely done by the Tenders Board.