Nigeria Immigration Job Fiasco: President Jonathan Cancels Immigration Service Recruitment Test

President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered the immediate cancellation of last Saturday’s Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment exercise‎ which led to the death of about 19 graduate job seekers across the country. The president also directed that three young members of the deceased’s families,‎ one of which must be a female, should be given automatic employment, along with all the injured currently receiving treatment in hospitals. He’s however silent on what happens to the hundreds of millions of naira already paid as application fees by the hapless applicants.

Mr Jonathan at the end of his weekly meetings with his cabinet also set up a special committee headed by the Chairman of Federal Civil Service Commission, Mrs Joan Ayo, to conduct a new recruitment exercise to fill the vacancies in the Nigeria Immigration Service at a yet to be determined date. Other members of the committee include: the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, David Paradang, a Representative of the Inspector General of the Nigeria Police, Representative of the Comptroller of the Nigeria Prison Service, Representative of the Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corps and a Representative of the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

 Briefing the media at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja today, Information Minister, Labaran Maku, said Council members took turns to condole families of the deceased over their loss and sent their best wishes to those injured. He added that the president also warned all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)‎ not to embark on such exercise again with the exception of the Armed Forces and the Police, with a warning defaulters will be dealt with.
His words: ”FEC noted with grief and deep regrets the tragedy of those who died in the ill fated Nigeria Immigration exercise. FEC in sending condolences to the families of the deceased and also in sending special wishes to those who are injured and receiving treatment in various hospitals in different parts of the country expressed total regrets that this tragedy took place at all.
“Council members were full of grief when the issue was discussed. We expressed our condolences to the President and Vice President and we indeed reassured Nigerians that all of us who have the privilege of servicing this nation at this time are feeling the pains with the families of our young ones who lost their lives.We reaffirmed our commitment to ensuring that this kind of tragedy does not repeat itself in this country.

“He instructed all MDAs henceforth never to embark on any exercise of this nature in recruiting people into the public service, because what happened could have been avoided altogether. He has directed that henceforth no one outside the Armed Forces, Police, who usually recruit people through physical exercises, no other MDA or department of government is allowed to embark on this type of exercise that we witnessed on Saturday.

 “Our hearts go out to the families of the deceased, this nation is fully behind them, the grief is not their own, the grief is the grief of all Nigerians and the grief is the grief of the government and the people of Nigeria. We regret it and pray for the souls of those who have departed.
“It is regrettable that this took place at a time that every effort was being made by government to increase spaces available for employment. For example last year we were able to get 1.6 million employed in the various sectors of the economy and the public service. However this incident is so painful to all of us and we will not want to see in this country young job seekers looking for job and loosing their lives in the process.
“We assure the nation today that every step will be taken to look into the various lapses in recruitment exercises into the public service to be sure that all those who are qualified get access into the public service without going through this kind of experience.”

CULLED FROM ireports-ng.com