NIS tragedy, a personal loss -Moro

    
The Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, has described the death of 20 applicants at the March 15 recruitment of the Nigerian Immigration Service as a personal loss.

 The minister, who stated this in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Sunday, said as a father, the incident could not have been deliberate.
Moro reiterated his earlier position to take full responsibility for what happened as the presiding minister of interior.
He appealed to Nigerians to understand that the motive behind the exercise was to ensure that it was transparent.

According to him, it was meant to give employment to Nigerians irrespective of their background, connections, contacts in government or the business circle.

He added that the exercise was meant to correct all the ills of the past and give everybody an open opportunity to get employment.

Moro said, “For me, like I said it is a personal loss because the exercise in the first place took place within the ministry of interior, organized by the ministry and its services and so whatever consequences, positive or negative that have come and in this instances negative out of it certainly, I as the Minister of that Ministry under whose purview this exercise took place where people lost their lives, certainly take full responsibility.

“I want to say repeatedly that the death of these young Nigerians would have added value to human resource asset of this nation is highly regrettable, and for the families I insist that my heart goes out for them because I am a father too.”
Moro said that he did not have any disagreement with either the Board or the Immigration Services official over the recruitment.

The minister stated, “I am not a member of the steering committee and so I could not have disagreed with the suggestion of the steering committee when I am not a member; when I didn’t attend the meeting.

“From the records that are available in the ministry and transmitted to me, which I approved, there is no indication of giving me an option that I would say I don’t like this option I like this option.

“If you look at the presentation that I made to the Senate committee on Interior, I did not subtract from the recommendation that was made to me and I did not add. I simply approved the request that was made.”