Abba Moro
The former Interior Minister, Abba Moro, was arrested on Monday by
the EFCC over his involvement in the Nigerian Immigration recruitment
scam in which no fewer than 20 job seekers died in 2014.
According to PremiumTimes, former Permanent Secretary in the
ministry, Anaesthesia Nwaobia, and a deputy director who allegedly
facilitated the scam were also arrested by the anti-graft agency.
A source at the commission, who cannot be named because she is not
authorised to speak on the matter revealed that three suspects were
picked up in the evening.
“They were brought into the commission’s headquarters today and
will be arraigned on a 12-count charge in the Federal High Court Abuja
on Tuesday,” the source said.
Some of the charges against Mr. Moro and his colleagues include
obtaining by false pretence, procurement offences, corrupt practices and
money laundering.
At least nine job seekers died on March 15, 2014 at the Abuja
National Stadium while scrambling to secure seats for a recruitment test
into the Nigerian Immigration Service.
The stampede ensued after the over 200,000 job seekers scrambled through a poorly organized barricade at the stadium.
In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, four applicants died from the
stampede while 12 others sustained injuries and were rushed to Rivers
government-owned Braithwaite Memorial Hospital.
It will be recalled that after the March 15 tragedy, several
Nigerians demanded the resignation or dismissal of Mr. Moro and the
Comptroller-General of Immigration, David Parradang, as well as their
criminal prosecution for involuntary homicide.
They were accused of putting in place a sham recruitment process
that enabled the interior ministry to extort at least N520 million in
compulsory levy imposed on applicants.
The minister, who initially blamed impatience and refusal by
applicants to abide by instructions for the tragedy, later accepted
responsibility for the incident.
No comments:
Post a Comment