Interior Minister's Family Begs Nigerians Over NIS Recruitment Deaths

The family of Interior Minister, Comrade Abba Moro, has apologised to Nigerians over the poor handling of the recruitment exercise of Nigerian Immigration Service, which led to the death of 19 applicants, penultimate Saturday.

The visibly troubled family, however flayed the consultancy firm that handled the exercise, saying that, if it had done its job well, the unfortunate incident would have been averted.

A statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by the Spokesperson of the family and Nephew to the Minister, Major Agbo, called on Nigerians to “exercise patience to enable the investigation panel come out with findings as to what really went wrong”, adding that the findings would be useful to forestall future occurrence.

The statement obtianed by Punch said, “We strongly share this moment of grief and pains with the immediate families of all those who lost their lives during the ill-fated recruitment exercise and beg Almighty God to comfort all parents, brothers, uncles and siblings of the deceased applicants while asking Him to give them eternal rest in His bossom.

“We know that no words, no matter how solemn, coming from the family will be enough to atone for these loss suffered by the immediate families of the deceased applicants but we will still beg for the understanding of Nigerians to enable the Ministry carry out proper investigation into this tragedy and tell Nigerians what really went wrong.”

Speaking further, the family strongly frowned at the firm over the shoddy and clumsy fashion with which the exercise was conducted.

Agbo said, “If the consultancy firm had done its job properly, it would have carried proper online screening of the applicants with the aim of pruning down the size that would be invited for the screening exercise having in mind the existing vacancies.

“The Honourable Minister is a member of the family and known seriously for his respect for sanctity of lives of people and cannot in anyway, celebrate the death of any human being as being insinuated in some quarters, but will however show respect for the opinions of individuals who have painted him in different light other than what we know about him.”

The family observed that though the incident was sad and shocking, the minister should not be totaly blamed for the poor handling of the deadly recruitment exercise.

He said, “Once again, we plead for the understanding of all those who lost their dear ones in this incidence to show understanding as God knows better what has happened.

“Our heart, as a family is with you and we strongly believe that God almighty will comfort you during this period of grief. We are with you in prayers now and always. God bless Nigeria.”

According to Agbo, Moro has gone down in history as one of the best local government chairmen Benue state in particular and the country in general has had, “having served as ALGON chairman in Benue and having received numerous awards as best serving local government chairman in the federation in the past.”

He said, “The Honourable Minister has over time, been known as a man of integrity, honesty, dedication to duty, thoroughness, commitment and we are still at a loss as to what probably may have gone wrong with this exercise.

“As the Head of the Ministry, the task of overseeing the conduct of the exercise rested strictly with the Minister through the CG of NIS; what happened at the field did not reflect the numerous assurances received by the Honourable Minister from the consultants that all was going on smoothly”

While thanking the Federal Government for coming up with compensation for the immediate family members of the victims and all injured applicants across the federation, the family said it was a commendable gesture “even though we are aware that such gestures cannot bring back to life, all those who died in the tragedy.”

Categories: Society

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