Why recruitment was not advertised – Immigration

Nigerian Immigration Service on Tuesday said the vacant posts in the agency were not advertised because it wanted to avoid a repeat of the rush during the 2006 recruitment exercise when many applicants died.

The service also denied that it allotted some vacancy slots to the President’s wife, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, saying the report was “far from the truth.”

The service had come under fire for allegedly conducting a recruitment exercise without advertisement, allotting slots to Patience, and favouring applicants from the South-East where the NIS Controller, Rose Uzoma, comes from.

Uzoma also allegedly offered hundreds of job slots to top government functionaries, (the Presidency, 250 slots); (Jonathan’s mother, 40 slots); First Lady, 100 slots); (Interior Minister, Abba Moro, 100 slots); (two commissioners of the Immigration board, 30 slots each); and (the Federal Character Commission, 250 slots.)

The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character, which was said to have begun an investigation into the exercise, was reported to have asked the NIS to suspend the exercise.

Uzoma, who appeared before the House committee to defend the accusations reportedly told the lawmakers that the service did not advertise the jobs so as not to unknowingly employ terrorists.

The NIS boss also claimed she obtained approval from the Head of Service of the Federation to employ 4,560 persons.

But the NIS Public Relations Officer, Joachim Olumba, told our correspondent on the telephone on Tuesday that thousands of applicants had submitted applications to the service, adding that the qualified ones were recently shortlisted for possible employment.

He said, “The media reports on the recruitment were mischievous and far from the truth. We didn’t advertise the vacancies because we don’t want a repeat of what happened during the 2006 recruitment exercise when many applicants died.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Interior, has cancelled the exercise following the controversy that has surrounded the process.

The minister’s directive was contained in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Ubong Udoh.

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