2,000 Immigration Recruits Stage Protest In Abuja, Demand Reinstatement
Tue Apr 05, 2016 08:37:am National
2.6K By sosa hills
Over 2,000 recruits of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) have protested the Federal Government's termination of the exercise.
The frustrated recruits, who stormed the Ministry of Interior Complex in Abuja on Monday, lamented that after they endured a three-month induction training in 2015, they were yet to be engaged by the NIS under the directive of the Federal Government.
Although they were unable to meet the Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, to express their plight, the ministry's Permanent Secretary, Mr. Bassey Akpanyung, who spoke through his Special Assistant, Mr. Felix Okonkwo, promised to look into their case.
"All issues relating to your grievances will be sorted out and everybody will be happy", he promised them.
The leader of the group, Mr. Solomon Ojigbe, during the peaceful protest, said they were yet to receive any official communication from the government since they were asked to go home in August last year.
Ojigbe said: "These young recruits, parents, families and sympathizers have waited aimlessly for over eight months ...without any form of pronouncement from the Nigeria Immigration Service, Ministry of Interior, CDFIPB and other government sources.
"While we waited patiently for an official memo in view of our plight, the CDFIPB, Ministry of Interior and the Nigeria Immigration Services went ahead to recruit over 2000 personnel secretly who are presently in the various training institutions without considering us.
"This, we see as a move akin to replacing us. We are, therefore, at the Ministry to demand our immediate resumption".
He noted that all the applicants passed through the rigorous but transparent process of recruitment and were selected based on merit, lamenting that they were suspended because they were seen as commoners who don't have anyone in the corridors of power to fight their cause.
It would be recalled that following the ill-fated recruitment exercise conducted in 2014, in which over a dozen applicants lose their lives, then President Goodluck Jonathan constituted a committee to carry out a fresh recruitment process.
Out Of the 48,747 candidates shortlisted, 2,000 (400 Assistant Superintendents of Immigration (ASI), 700 Assistant Inspectors of Immigration and 900 Immigration Assistants) were selected after a Computer-Based Test and 1,600 of them got their appointment letters before the training.
The 400 ASI were awaiting the arrival of theirs when the directive to terminate the process was issued.
Among other requests, the recruits urged the government to recall them to duty and also direct the issuance of appointment letters to the 400 Assistant Superintendents of Immigration and payment of the salary arrears of all the affected recruits.
The protesters said despite embarking on a recent secret recruitment of hundreds of people who are currently undergoing training at immigration schools in Kano and Port Harcourt, the Federal Government seemed unperturbed at their plight.
They accused the Comptroller-General of the Service, Martin Kure Abeshi, of nepotism, saying his son is among those currently undergoing training in Kano despite having not gone through any recruitment test.
The protesters said they had severally written to relevant committees of the National Assembly on the matter without any redress.
The frustrated recruits, who stormed the Ministry of Interior Complex in Abuja on Monday, lamented that after they endured a three-month induction training in 2015, they were yet to be engaged by the NIS under the directive of the Federal Government.
Although they were unable to meet the Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, to express their plight, the ministry's Permanent Secretary, Mr. Bassey Akpanyung, who spoke through his Special Assistant, Mr. Felix Okonkwo, promised to look into their case.
"All issues relating to your grievances will be sorted out and everybody will be happy", he promised them.
The leader of the group, Mr. Solomon Ojigbe, during the peaceful protest, said they were yet to receive any official communication from the government since they were asked to go home in August last year.
Ojigbe said: "These young recruits, parents, families and sympathizers have waited aimlessly for over eight months ...without any form of pronouncement from the Nigeria Immigration Service, Ministry of Interior, CDFIPB and other government sources.
"While we waited patiently for an official memo in view of our plight, the CDFIPB, Ministry of Interior and the Nigeria Immigration Services went ahead to recruit over 2000 personnel secretly who are presently in the various training institutions without considering us.
"This, we see as a move akin to replacing us. We are, therefore, at the Ministry to demand our immediate resumption".
He noted that all the applicants passed through the rigorous but transparent process of recruitment and were selected based on merit, lamenting that they were suspended because they were seen as commoners who don't have anyone in the corridors of power to fight their cause.
It would be recalled that following the ill-fated recruitment exercise conducted in 2014, in which over a dozen applicants lose their lives, then President Goodluck Jonathan constituted a committee to carry out a fresh recruitment process.
Out Of the 48,747 candidates shortlisted, 2,000 (400 Assistant Superintendents of Immigration (ASI), 700 Assistant Inspectors of Immigration and 900 Immigration Assistants) were selected after a Computer-Based Test and 1,600 of them got their appointment letters before the training.
The 400 ASI were awaiting the arrival of theirs when the directive to terminate the process was issued.
Among other requests, the recruits urged the government to recall them to duty and also direct the issuance of appointment letters to the 400 Assistant Superintendents of Immigration and payment of the salary arrears of all the affected recruits.
The protesters said despite embarking on a recent secret recruitment of hundreds of people who are currently undergoing training at immigration schools in Kano and Port Harcourt, the Federal Government seemed unperturbed at their plight.
They accused the Comptroller-General of the Service, Martin Kure Abeshi, of nepotism, saying his son is among those currently undergoing training in Kano despite having not gone through any recruitment test.
The protesters said they had severally written to relevant committees of the National Assembly on the matter without any redress.
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