By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
The Senate Committee on Interior will today grill the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and the Comptroller General of Immigration, David Parradang, over the stampede at the various immigration recruitment centres, which killed 19 applicants.
The Senate committee is commencing a two-day probe during which members of the public and concerned stakeholders would make contributions concerning the incidence.
It would be recalled that no fewer than 16 people died during the NIS recruitment exercise penultimate Saturday across the country, hence the Senate and the House of Representatives set up two different committees to investigate the circumstances that led to the stampede.
The report of the committee would enable both chambers to take the appropriate measure on how to prevent future occurrence and to know what to make of the recruitment exercise which has been inconclusive.
The public hearing, according to the Clerk of the Senate Committee, Isah Garba, would hold at the Conference Hall 0231 in the Senate new building by 10:00am each day.
The committee had invited Moro and Parradang to appear before it on the two days, to respond to questions concerning their roles in the tragedy, which many Nigerians say was avoidable.
The Senate at its plenary, presided over by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, last Tuesday asked the committee to unravel the mystery surrounding the incidence and recommend for prosecution, those responsible for the tragedy.
Senate’s resolution to invite and grill Moro and Parradang on the tragedy was sequel to a motion moved by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, Atiku Abubakar Bagudu (PDP Kebbi Central) and 10 other Senators.
Bagudu had recalled in the motion that as far back as 2011, the office of the Head of Service of the Federation granted approval for the recruitment of a total of 4,556 personnel of various cadre for the Nigeria Immigration Service ranging from Assistant Superintendent 1&2 to Immigration Assistant III.
He lamented that it took the agency three years before coming out with an open attempt to utilise the approval which however ended up killing 16 applicants.
He said contrary to the usual practice of not collecting money from any applicant by the Customs, Immigration and Prisons Board, the agency contracted to carry out the process collected N1000 from the applicants for NIS.
