Immigration Stampede: El-Rufai, Others Sign Petition For Moro, Parradang Removal

Source: pointblanknews.com

A former minister of the FCT, Nasir El-Rufai, signed an online petition calling for the removal of Abba Moro and NIS CG Parradang.

He took his Facebook page to share this info and to encourage his followers and every Nigerian to consider doing the same.

“It's important. Will you sign it too?,” El-Rufai asked.

The Petition was composed by Youth Action Initiative Africa, Abuja.

See the full text below:
Petitioning The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

Relieve the Minister of Interior (Comrade Abba Moro) and the Controller-General of Immigration (David S. Parradang) of their positions.

On Saturday, 15 March 2014, hundreds of thousands of job-seekers attended job-seeking examinations organised by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in different centres in Nigeria to fill 4,556 vacancies. The NIS is supervised by the Ministry of the Interior.

The Ministry and the NIS had compelled each jobseeker, as an eligibility condition for participating in this hire process, to pay the sum of one thousand Naira (N1,000). There is no evidence that these sums were remitted to the Federation Account as required by law.

In most places, these job-seeking examinations took place in stadia, suggesting that the organisers anticipated large turn outs. Inexplicably, they failed to make adequate or any arrangements for crowd management and control.

At different centres around the country, including Abuja, Benin, Kano, Minna, and Port-Harcourt, many job-seekers, including pregnant mothers, were killed and lots more were injured in stampedes caused by grossly negligent and uncaring ground arrangements.

This tragedy was needless, foreseeable, and avoidable. The failures of the Ministry of the Interior and NIS to adequately manage the process and safeguard the safety and security of the jobseekers is inexcusable.

The deaths that resulted from these failures, therefore, were unlawful. If the lives of Nigerians mean anything, the leadership and management teams in the Ministry of the Interior and the NIS must be held to account for these deaths.

In his reaction to the deaths, Minister of the Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, accused the victims of “impatience”, claiming that the deaths resulted because “they did not follow the laid down procedures spelt out to them before the exercise.”

The effort by the Minister responsible for citizenship in Nigeria to blame the victims rather than take responsibility shows a callous disregard for the lives of Nigerians incompatible with his high Ministerial brief. It brings public service into disrepute. In the circumstances, we the undersigned, as citizens of Nigeria, respectfully demand that:

a) The Minister of the Interior, Comrade Abba Moro; and the Controller -General of Immigration, Mr. David Shikfu Parradang, be immediately relieved of their positions;

b) The Honorable Attorney-General of the Federation and the Inspector-General of Police together with the Director-General of State Security, should launch a joint criminal investigation into the deaths of these jobseekers;

c) An independent audit should immediately be instituted into the monies made by the Ministry and the NIS from the jobseekers and criminal investigations should be commenced as appropriate;

d) Government should demonstrate a readiness to address the problem of youth unemployment as a national security priority through a partnership involving the agricultural sector, public sector, private sector, voluntary sector, and multi-laterals.

To the families across the country bereaved as a result of these and other on going challenges in our country, we take this opportunity to transmit heartfelt condolences and pray for the peaceful repose of the souls of our deceased brothers and sisters.

Signed,