Immigration Tragedy: Moro Knows Faith Today

The Senate Committee on Interior probing the ill-fated recruitment into the Nigerian Immigration Service on March 15, which led to the death of 16 job seekers, is expected to submit its report for the consideration of the upper chamber on Tuesday (today).

The committee was expected to submit its report last week Thursday but the Chairman, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, pleaded with the Senate leadership to extend the submission till Tuesday.

Bagudu explained that his committee could not submit the report last week because the supporting documents requested by him from some of the main actors who made presentations during the public hearing had not been received.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the session, granted Bagudu’s request and noted that the Senate would look forward to having the report on Tuesday.

It will be recalled that the committee had requested further proofs from a permanent member of the Board of Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services, Mr. Mustapha Zakariya, who alleged that the unfortunate exercise conducted for the NIS, was not approved by the board.

Zakariya, who claimed to be a member of the board since 2008, also told the committee that the decision to hire the consultant that conducted the exercise was unilaterally taken by Moro, who also doubles as the chairman of the board.

Specifically, the board member told the committee that the signature of a former Secretary of the board, Dr. R. K. Attahiru, on the agreement between the consultants and the board, was allegedly forged because the man, who purportedly appended his signature, had denied doing so.

The committee, therefore, requested for additional information from Zakariya, to further support his claims.

Also, the committee asked the firm that developed the electronic platform for the ill-fated e-recruitment exercise, Messrs Drexel Technologies Nigeria Limited, to submit relevant documents to support its assertion that the contract was properly consumated between it and the ministry.

The Company Secretary/Legal Adviser of the company, Mr. Theodore Maiyaki, had told the committee that the multi-million naira contract was not advertised for competitive bidding by the Federal Ministry of Interior.

The committee had, based on the presentation by the firm’s representative, faulted the award of the contract to Drexel, which it claimed did not qualify to win such job going by its Memorandum of the Articles of Association.

Bagudu said the Drexel’s Memorandum of Articles of Association, showed that it was incorporated in 2011 to carry out business of general contract, finance, import and market all kinds of electrical appliances, and provide mechanised agriculture services.

Bagudu had said, “I have seen the Memoradum of Articles of this company, it is a business of general contracts, and distribution of general goods. Where does that allow you to engage in this kind of technical service?

“It is just a shareholder in SW Global. How does that qualify you for the contract awarded to you?”

Maiyaki, nevertheless, said the company was incorporated in 2011 and immediately bought majority shares into SW Global which already was over 10 years in existence and doing the same business as the contract awarded to it.

He urged the committee to look at the statement of share capital and return of the firm’s lodgement of SW Global in which Drexel had N80m shares.

He said, “The SW Global is a complete IT-based company. That was the nexus that gave us the proficiency to handle the project.

“The Articles of Association permits Drexel to invest in another company, that is why it invested in SW Global Limited to enable it to prosecute its mandate.”

The committee therefore asked the consultant to forward to it, the breakdown of all additional expenditure they incurred in the cost of expanding its infrastructure to accommodate extra application apart from their initial target of 50,000.