A controversial recruitment exercise
which allegedly favoured a section of the country is going on at the
Nigerian Immigration Service with jobs slots being secretly allocated to
top government officials, sources told Daily Trust.
This
is happening just three months to the exit of Controller General of the
service Mrs. Rose Chinyere Uzoma, who is accused of favouring her
kinsmen from the Southeast in the distribution of the vacancies.
A
source in the House of Representatives said already the committee on
Federal Character has opened investigations and asked the Immigration
service to suspend the exercise.
The source said Uzoma appeared
before the House committee last week to defend accusations of failure to
publicly advertise vacancies and giving undue favouritism to the
Southeast.
Uzoma, according to the source, told the lawmakers that
the service did not advertise the jobs so as not to unknowingly employ
terrorists, but the lawmakers reminded her that even the Military and
Police are advertising their vacancies in spite of the prevailing
insurgency.
She also said she had already obtained approval from the Head of Service of the Federation to employ 4,560 people.
The
committee therefore asked her to provide details of the present
distribution of the Immigration work force based on state of origin.
A
committee member said they found out that out of over 25,000
Immigration staff, Uzoma’s husband’s state of origin Imo has the highest
number with 1,190; Kano has 350; Lagos has 400; while Sokoto has the
least with 200.
The committee therefore ordered her to stay action
on the recruitment until she provides details on how she intends to
share out the slots, but with priority to be given to the states that at
present have low representation in the service.
Daily Trust
learnt that before the lawmakers tried to pull the brakes, Uzoma had
already offered hundreds of job slots to top government functionaries,
including the Presidency which is offered 250 slots, Jonathan’s mother
40 slots, First Lady 100 slots, Interior Minister Abba Moro 100 slots,
two commissioners of the Immigration board 30 slots each, and the
Federal Character Commission 250 slots.
A source said the Federal
Character Commission was given those job slots for giving the
Immigration service waiver on the advertisement of the vacancies.
Presidential
spokesman Reuben Abati did not respond to text a message sent to him
asking for his comments on the alleged offers of Immigration job slots
to the Presidency and Jonathan’s mother and wife.
For its part,
the Federal Character Commission, through its spokesman Usman Jimada,
denied being compromised by the Immigration Service. Jimada added that
the commission will continue to pursue its mandate of fair and equitable
recruitment in a manner that is transparent and beneficial to all
Nigerians.
When asked for comments, spokesman for the Immigration
service Mr. Olumbar Joachim said he was not aware of the Presidency
getting offers to fill certain vacancies but added that there was
nothing wrong with the Presidency or other officials making
recommendations to the service.
“I am not aware of that and I
don’t think it is correct,” he said, adding: “But for the Presidency
giving recommendations, it is a different thing. Assuming that you, you
know this person is of good character and all that, it’s a different
thing. You are recommending somebody; it is not as if it is mandatory
that that person would have to be recruited. What it means is that you
are saying this person is not a criminal, you are saying that this
person is a Nigerian.”
Joachim also denied that the CG is
recruiting massively from her state of origin Abia and her husband’s
state Imo. He said the exercise was open to scrutiny from the Federal
Character Commission since it is mandatory that every state filled its
quota.
“You cannot say madam is from Abia her husband is from Imo,
Immigration is recruiting 1500 now Imo is producing 500; it is not
possible anybody will ever do that,” he added.
He said all state controllers of Immigration were involved in the recruitment exercise.
Joachim
said also the service introduced stringent vetting measures including
having a guarantor to ensure it does not admit criminals, referring to a
recent incident where an Immigration officer was arrested on suspicion
of being a Boko Haram member.
“One thing is certain, the service
will not engage in any exercise that will endanger the lives of innocent
Nigerians. Two, considering the situation we are in now we will go the
extra mile to ensure that criminals and terrorists are not brought into
the service,” he added.
‘This cannot stand’
When Daily Trust
contacted chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Federal
Character, Rep. Ahmed Idris (ACN, Plateau), he said they have opened
investigations into the “illegal” recruitments in the Immigration
service.
“We have met twice with the Comptroller General, the last
was on Saturday and she told us that they are recruiting 4,500 new
officers out of which 1,200 is for senior cadres or degree holders while
about 300 is for Diploma and secondary school leavers,” he said.
“Based
on the reports we got, we have asked for their nominal roll and her
last recruitment which will be given in a template that will reflect
state by state distribution and even local governments. Section 4 of the
1999 constitution is very clear about Federal character in every
government organisation and we won’t allow anybody who violates it to go
scot-free.”
On whether the committee will reverse the
recruitment, Idris said: “Certainly we will not only reverse it but we
will go further and apply for their prosecution for perpetuating
illegality.”