Only N45 Million Released For Deadly Immigration Screening, As Comptroller General, Parradang, Denies Knowledge Of Recruitment

Despite raising at least N710 million from poor applicants, recruitment consultant, Drexel Limited, and interior ministry authorities released only N45 million for the conduct of the screening into the Nigeria Immigration Service, which ended in fatalities.
At least 16 job seekers died in stampedes across Nigeria on March 15, sparking widespread outrage and calls for the removal of the Minister of Interior, Patrick Abba Moro, and Comptroller General of Immigration, David Parradang. The Secretary of the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services board, S. D. Tapgun, told the senate committee on interior investigating the exercise that 710,000 people registered for the test, according to figures provided by the consultant, Drexel Limited. The board had no independent means of knowing the exact figure, he said. Lawmakers heard how despite raising the huge amount, the board and the ministry still had no funds to conduct the exercise. The N45 million released by the firm, was regarded merely as a discretionary contribution, a disclosure lawmakers said was one of the clearest signs the government board had lost control over a firm it claimed to have hired. PT.