Immigration Made N6 Billion From 6-Million Jobless Youth – Says HURIWA

“The Nigerian Immigration Services [NIS] made over N6 billion from 6 million job seekers who will sit for the aptitude test to be conducted on 15thMarch 2014 and these applicants are made up essentially of jobless Nigerian youths who picked forms to seek for recruitment into the immigration agency for the only 500 vacant slots available currently”.

With the above finding, for the umpteenth time, a pro-democracy group – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the malpractice of demanding payment of N1,000.00 from each job applicant by the management of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).

In the considered thinking of HURIWA, such a policy amounts to illegal extortion of jobless youth to enrich the pocket of a government and her officials that have failed to create enabling environment for youth employment in the last two decades.

in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National media Affairs Director Ms. Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA Said charging job applicant before taking test to be recruited into the para-military outfit is not only a criminal scheme that undermines national security but also economically impoverishes the Nigerian youth who are deceived into parting with their scarcely available financial resources for job slots that are only available for only a hand full.

The Rights group said it was immoral and a scandal of monumental proportion that government agencies benefit financially from the evil of unemployment when in fact government is obliged to pay unemployment benefits to jobless youth to keep them away from being recruited as agents of destabilization and terrorism.

HURIWA has therefore asked President Jonathan to order the federal ministry of interior and the hierarchy of the Nigerian Immigration Services to refund the application fees paid by over 6 million jobless youth who will on March 15th 2014 sit for interview to seek placement into only 500 employment slots into the Nigerian Immigration Services from across Nigeria.

Besides, HURIWA also wants the Economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC) to prosecute the officials of the Nigerian Immigration Services for engaging in a criminal syndicate of obtaining money through false pretenses since only 500 slots are available but over 6 million applications forms were sold to vulnerable and hapless jobless Nigerians.

HURIWA said: “we have consistently condemned the criminal practice by virtually all government agencies including security agencies who engage in commercializing the process of recruiting Nigerians into their ranks. This malpractice is not only criminal but endangers national security and also promotes grand scale fraud whereby government deliberately obtains money from more job seekers than the number of vacant slots available”.

“This is a deliberate criminal scheme carefully planned by some fraudsters in the private sector and their allies inside government circles which must be stopped. We found out that each applicant sitting for the ongoing recruitment exercise into the Nigerian Immigration Services paid N1000 and over 6 million unemployed graduates picked the forms but only 500 vacant slots are available which means the government reaped the profit of over N6 Billion from the misfortune of jobless Nigerian youth. This is an unmitigated financial crime against humanity which must be stopped and the evil plotters who seek to benefit from the misfortune of jobless citizens made to face the full weight of the law”.

www.osundefender.org

March 14, 2014.