NIS tragedy: Reps order Immigration to employ victims’ families

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The House of Representatives has directed the Ministry of Interior and the Nigerian Immigration Service to “immediately” employ family members of the victims of the 2014 immigration recruitment stampede as approved by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The House gave the directive on Thursday in Abuja as it endorsed the report of its ad hoc committee, which investigated the non-compliance with the presidential directive.

The committee was chaired by the Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila.

The other members are House Minority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, and the Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Mr. Aminu Shagari.

Jonathan had directed that three family members of each of the 16 job seekers, who lost their lives in the tragedy, should be given automatic employment.

The former President also approved the immediate employment of another 176 candidates, who were injured during the stampede.

However, the committee observed that as of October 8 this year, the presidential directives had not been fully complied with, forcing the families and the injured victims to protest at the National Assembly.

Giving an insight into how Jonathan’s directives were stalled, Gbajabiamila told the House that there was “in-fighting” between a presidential committee the former President set up to probe the stampede and the Immigration/Prisons Service Board.

He explained that though letters of employment were issued to the beneficiaries, they were not really employed because no documentation or salaries were entered in their names.

Gbajabiamila added, “Yes, letters were issued to them, but the reality was that they were not employed. This was caused by the in-fighting between the board and the committee the former President set up to look into the stampede.”

The House, in adopting the recommendations of the committee, directed that all the beneficiaries should be given full employment with “all salaries and emolument paid, effective from the date the presidential directive was given.”

It passed the same resolution in respect of the 176 others confirmed to have been injured in a report by the Department of State Services.

In addition, the House called for a detailed investigation to identify more people that might have been injured but not captured among the 176.

The committee made this additional recommendation because it said more people came to protest while the House investigation was on to complain that they were not captured among the 176 victims.

The House, however, distanced itself from another set of 2,000 personnel, which the presidential committee recruited on the heels of the presidential directive.

It said the scope of the investigation did not cover the 2,000.

Source: Punch