Leon Usigbe
17 July 2008
Lagos — THE House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Interior, Major-Gen. Godwin Abbe (rtd), and the executive members of the Civil Defence, Immigration and Prisons Board over last weekend's deaths of job seekers in the Immigration and Prisons recruitment exercises.
The House also plans to present a motion against on-line recruitment by government agencies.
The House in a letter to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. P.S. Nwosu said the minister and officers were needed to throw light on recruitment exercises which caused close to 20 lives.
Those to appear today before the House Committee on Interior in House Committee Room 14 are members of the board of Civil Defence, Immigration and Prisons, led by its Secretary and Director, Mr. E. S. Ede who are expected to brief the lawmakers on the arrangements made for the exercise and details of the casualties.
Meanwhile, the Minority Leader of the House, Mr Mohammed Ali Ndume, plans to initiate a move against on-line recruitment exercise as he believed that the measure alienated rural dwellers in such exercises.
Speaking in Abuja yesterday, he remarked that a lot of people from the rural areas had been cut off from the on-line recruitment exercise because of lack of access to the internet in their various places of abode, saying the planned motion would seek to correct the situation.
Thirteen applicants died in the Immigration Services recruitment across the country, with eight in Enugu, Abia and Anambra states, four in Asaba, and one in Bauchi.
The development sparked angry reactions from several quarters, including Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, and some groups in the South-East zone.
Chime rushed to the ESUT Teaching Hospital on receiving report of the incident and expressed deep concern over the death of the job seekers. His government also promised to give automatic employment to 21 survivors of the stampede, while the Igbo Youth Movement (IYM) reacting to the incident, called for a probe with a view to bringing those responsible for the "many deaths" to book.
Apart from the automatic employment promised by the Enugu State government, it also said the survivors' medical bills would be paid by it.
In the tragedies that occurred in Enugu, Abia and Anambra States during the screening test organised by Nigeria Immigration for thousands of applicants, four persons were confirmed dead in Enugu, two in Abia and two others in Anambra.
In Enugu, the stampede occurred at the main gate of the Federal Government College where the job seekers numbering over 10,000 were billed to write an aptitude test.
The Immigration officials had asked the applicants who converged on their Federal Secretariat office beginning with the females to take a 20-minute walk to the college to sit for the test.
It was gathered that on arrival at the college's gate, the female applicants discovered that the gate was locked and therefore waited for officials to open it. But when their male counterparts ran to the place, they attempted to force the gate open leading to the stampede during which some of the job seekers were trampled upon.
Comptroller of Immigration in Enugu State, Mr David Parradang, who confirmed the incident described it as unfortunate, saying while four deaths were recorded, about 20 others were rushed to the ESUT Teaching Hospital.
The Prisons authorities confirmed that five of their applicants died while undergoing screening.
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