The day of reckoning is here. After walking free for
about two years, former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, and four others are
now set to face trial for their roles in the shoddy March 15, 2014 immigration
recruitment exercise that killed no fewer than 20 job seekers across the
country.
After investigating the matter for five months, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has now slammed an 11- count charge
bordering on obtaining by false pretence, procurement fraud and money
laundering on Mr Moro; permanent secretary of the ministry at the time,
Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia; a deputy director in the ministry, F. O Alayebami; one
Mahmood Ahmadu (at large), and the contracting firm given the recruitment job,
Drexel Tech Nigeria Ltd.
The defendants are accused of defrauding 676, 675,000
(Six Hundred and Seventy Six Thousand, Six Hundred and Seventy Five) Nigerian
applicants of N676,675,000 (Six Hundred and Seventy Six Million, Six Hundred
and Seventy Five Thousand Naira).
The applicants paid N1000 each through an e-payment platform
for their online recruitment exercise into the Nigerian Immigration Service.
The accused are also alleged to have contravened the
Public Procurement Act, No. 65 of 2007 in the contract awards by not following
the necessary procedure laid down by the government.
The award of the contract to Drexel Tech Nig Ltd, the
EFCC said. had no prior advertisement, no needs assessment and a procurement
plan was not carried out before the contract was awarded.
The contract was awarded through selective tendering
procedure by invitation of 4 (Four) firms without seeking the approval of the
Bureau for Public Procurement, contrary to sections 40, 42 and 43 of the Public
Procurement Act, No. 65 of 2007 and punishable under section 58 of the same
act, the anti-graft agency said.
Drexel Tech Global Nigeria Limited, the company that
provided the online enlistment and recruitment services is said to be
unregistered and had no legal capacity to enter into the said contract.
There is also said to be no budgetary provision for
the exercise in the 2014 Federal Capital budget hence the applicants were made
to bear the responsibility of funding the project without approval of the Board
contrary to section 22(5) of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
Related Offences Act 2000, the charge said.
The document alleged that “One of the accused Mahmood
Ahmadu(who is at large) in connivance with Drexel Tech Nigeria Ltd, lavished
the total of N423,800,000.00(Four Hundred and Twenty Three Million, Eight
Hundred Thousand naira) part of the N676,675,000 (Six Hundred and Seventy Six
Million, Six Hundred and Seventy Five Thousand Naira) gotten from the
applicants on the following: the sum N202, 500, 000( Two Hundred and Two
Million Five Hundred Thousand naira ) in purchase of a property in a choice
area of the Federal Capital territory, N120, 100,000 (One Hundred and twenty
Million One hundred Thousand Naira ) used in upgrading a property in Abuja,
while the total of N101, 200, 000( One Hundred and One Million Two Hundred
thousand Naira) was converted to United states dollars for personal use.”
The case, filed at a Federal High Court in Abuja, is
yet to be assigned as at the close of work on Tuesday.
Those familiar with the matter said Mr. Moro and the
other accused persons might be arraigned before the end of the week.
A source at the commission, who cannot be named
because she is not authorised to speak on the matter, had told PREMIUM TIMES on
Monday that the suspects were picked up on Monday evening preparatory to their
being charged.
At least nine job seekers died at the Abuja National
Stadium while scrambling to secure seats for the controversial recruitment
test.
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.
After the 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 applicants.
The minister, who initially blamed impatience and
refusal by applicants to abide by instructions for the tragedy, later accepted
responsibility for the incident.
He, however, refused to step down.
Speaking on a Channels TV’s breakfast programme,
Sunrise, on October 20, 2014, Mr. Moro made it clear he would not resign,
saying he would rather stay put in office to clear the mess caused by the
incidence.
“The point at which we are now is not about
resignation. That time has gone,” Mr. Morro said in response to a question over
why he refused to quit.
“At the time (people were calling for his
resignation), I think emotions were very high. I was in the eye of a storm.
“At that time, a lot of options were on the table… The
issue is do you resign or do you stay to sort out the problem that have been
created?
“I decided that staying and mopping up the mess caused
by the lack of proper implementation of our plans is better. That’s the point
we are now.”
The minister said Nigerians should consider the
tragedy as an accident which he too did not plan for or envisage.
“I also have families. I didn’t set out on that
journey knowing that accident would occur that would lead to the death of human
beings.
“We took everything into proper perspective. If we had
succeeded, a few Nigerians would have congratulated us for the job well done.”
Source: Premium Times.
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