NIS tragedy: Senators differ on call for Moro’s sack, orders investigation

The Senate on Tuesday described as a national calamity Saturday’s recruitment exercise conducted by the Nigeria Immigration Service that led to the death of over 20 job applicants as a result of stampede.
Contributing to a motion sponsored by the Chairman, Committee on Interior, Senator Atiku Bagudu, the senators, who took turn to speak, unanimously condemned the manner in which the exercise was conducted nationwide.
However, they disagreed on whether the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, should be sacked or not.
The plenary, presided over by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekwerenmadu, mandated its Committee on Interior to conduct a public hearing on the matter and report back to plenary in one week.
The Upper House also urged the executive to come out with a marshal plan to tackle the rate of unemployment in the country.
Ekweremadu also called for the provision of social security for the unemployed in the country.
While the All Progressives Congress caucus called for the sack of the minister, others objected.
Objecting to the call for Moro’s sack, Senator Victor Lar (Plateau-PDP) opined that the real issue, which he noted was the unacceptable level of unemployment in the country, should be addressed.
Lar, therefore, enjoined the Senate to resolve that the police and paramilitary organizations should undertake massive recruitment exercises.
In his contribution, Senator Ita Enang noted that unemployment is worse than insurgency and called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on employment.
Senator Smart Adeyemi (Kogi-PDP) said all the levels of government should device means of creating jobs.
Adeyemi said it should not be left to the Federal Government alone.
According to him: “We must restructure this country so that it is not only the Federal Government that is creating jobs.
“We don’t have to be uniform in our development process.
“We must create more states and create more states and create opportunities for the people.
“We should not concentrate in accumulating foreign reserves at the expense of developing our infrastructure and ministers should be summoned on a quarterly basis to explain their performance.”
Babafemi Ojudu, the caucus spokesperson of the APC in a statement noted: “The tragedy (NIS) has further graphically underlined the insensitivity of the President Jonathan administration to the plight of the people.
“In other countries, the deaths of these helpless applicants in such a circumstance would be enough for the Minister in charge to tender his resignation.
“We are calling on the Minister of the Interior, Hon. Abba Moro, to resign his position, because he can’t be absolved from the activities that eventually led to this monumental tragedy.
“We are very worried about the worsening unemployment rate and are, hereby, calling on President Jonathan to tackle the problem sincerely and decisively by declaring an emergency on the unemployment and urgently come out with a marshal plan to tackle the problem.
“We would be deceiving ourselves not to admit that joblessness is an indirect effect of the spate of insecurity that is bedevilling the country all over. If the President continues to dither on addressing the problem, we are afraid the insecurity situation can only get worse.”