* as NIS made N693m from application fees
Teddy Oscar, Abuja
The Public Account Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives has summoned Mr. Abba Moro, minister of interior, to appear before it and explain to the whole nation how much the botched nationwide aptitude test into the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) made from the applicants.
Also expected to hear from Moro is where the money is kept, and where he derived the power to conduct the illegal recruitment exercise without passing through the Board of the Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence, Prisons and the Fire Service.
This is even as the board revealed that 693,000 applicants registered online at the cost of N1,000 each.
Moro, however, would not be facing the lawmakers alone, as he was summoned to appear with Rexel Technical Global Nigeria Limited, the consultant he allegedly used to prosecute the aptitude test last Saturday.
Hon. Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, chairman, who gave the directive when Mr. S. D. Tapgun, a commissioner of the board, led other members of the board and heads of the agencies under the board to appear before his committee on Wednesday, disclosed that the committee had earlier summoned the board before the unfortunate incident when it was brought to its notice that each applicant was charged N1,000 by the service for recruitment exercise so that the board would come and account for the money so far collected.
“This is fraud. Nigerians, our children have been defrauded to the tune of a billion naira. The minister and the consultant must tell the whole Nigerians how much was collected, the banks where the money are being kept, and the account numbers among others,” he said.
Tapgun’s whose earlier statement that there was no board approval for the failed exercise had indicted the minister over the botched recruitment exercise, added that the board was sidelined in the whole exercise.
“Only the interior minister and the consultant he engaged for the exercise can tell Nigerians exactly what happened. Even the comptroller general of the Nigeria Immigration Service was not involved. He was not part of the recruitment at all. There was no board resolution to recruit any body.
“When we, the members of the board, learnt about the recruitment, we wrote the minister that we are not in support of engaging the services of a third party to conduct recruitment for the immigration service, but he ignored our letter, and went ahead to engage the consultant named Rexel Technical Global Nigeria Limited. The consultant fixed every thing, including a N1,000 fee, which they claimed was administrative charges,” he revealed.
The commissioner, who insisted that the members of the board are ready to confront the minister any day, any time to prove to the entire nation that the board was never part of the botched exercise, added that by the records at the disposal of the board, 693,000 applicants, who registered for the recruitment exercise, paid N1,000 each to the designated banks by the consultant.
