Recruitment tragedy: Senate withholds report to shield Minister

Indications have emerged that the report of the tragic Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment, which claimed not less 18 lives nationwide, may eventually be thrown into the dust bin.
The Senate on March 18 this year, three days after the recruitment of March 15, 2014, mandated its Committee on Interior to carry out a comprehensive probe of circumstances that led to the tragedy in which many others were also injured.
The report of the Senate Committee on Interior, which was submitted to the Senate several weeks behind schedule in May, has since submission not been attended to by the Senate in any way before it went on a long recess penultimate week.
Recent investigations by The Eagle Online over the delay of the Senate’s consideration of the report revealed that the report may not be considered at all before the expiration of this seventh National Assembly.
Sources said this is because the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, who was involved in the recruitment that turned tragic, is a political associate of the leadership of the Senate.
However, this position is contrary to that of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, who told the Senate Press Corps recently that all outstanding reports before the Senate will be considered before the expiration of the seventh Senate.
However, a senator, who pleaded anonymity, said nothing will come out of the investigative hearing because Moro, who hails from Benue State, is very close to the leadership of the Senate.
The leadership of the NIS had distanced itself from the mode adopted for the exercise, while several other persons, including some of the candidates, told the Senate Committee of the shoddy manner the Ministry of Interior handled the matter.
The senator, who craved for anonymity, told The Eagle Online: “Nothing can come of the report because the Minister involved is widely known to be like a political son to whom one can described as the leadership of the Senate in person.”
The senator disclosed further that most of the committee members did not see the report before it was submitted to the Senate.
A member of the committee, who pleaded for anonymity, said there is no report anywhere about the probe.
He said the Minister involved is more or less a sacred cow going by his closeness to the Senate leadership.
It could be recalled that about 18 job seekers died and many were injured on March 15 during a nationwide recruitment test conducted by the Nigeria Immigration Service.
The applicants reportedly paid N1,000 each as application fee.
Millions of job seekers had thronged venues of the exercise, mostly stadia, for the recruitment.
Seven were confirmed dead after a stampede at the National Stadium, Abuja, venue of the exercise in the Federal Capital Territory.
The 60,000-seater stadium was filled to capacity.
Each candidate was required to wear a white T-shirt, shorts, socks and tennis shoe for the exercise.