President Goodluck Jonathan may not be able to sack the embattled minister of the interior, Abba Moro, not because he was not culpable in last Saturday’s Immigration tragedy but due to his closeness to the president of the Senate, David Mark, LEADERSHIP Sunday can authoritatively report.
There was a stampede at the various centres in the country last week. No fewer than 20 people died after some 770,000 people had turned up to participate in an aptitude test for fewer than 4,800 vacant positions.
Since then, there has been a clamour for the sack or the resignation of Abba Moro but neither of the two has happened. Instead, the president merely told the delegates to the National Conference that he had summoned the minister and the comptroller-general of the Immigration to explain to him what had led to the tragedy.
The minister told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that there was no reason for him to resign. The interview, according to a Presidency source, did not go down well with some officials in the presidency.
Abba Moro told the BBC that there had been “poor handling” of the event by officials but also said those in the crowd should have been more patient and reportedly said his resignation “did not arise” until after an investigation.
Mr Moro told the BBC’s Newsday programme that “unauthorised” people had broken through the fence into the National Stadium in the capital, Abuja, where the tests were being held, causing the stampede.
Although he said he accepted responsibility, as only one stadium entrance was open at the time, he said he would not step down. He blamed the officials in charge of the stadium for the deaths, saying that more than one gate should have been opened.
“It is only the likes of Abba Moro that could grant such an interview while the issue is still as fresh in the minds of the people. Some of those corpses are still there in the morgue and he is still telling those who care to listen to him that he would not resign,” the Presidency source said.
Speaking further, the official disclosed that the hands of the President may have been tied because the minister is a political associate of the president of the Senate who has been standing by him since his emergence as the president.
“If I may tell you, Abba Moro is one of the most influential ministers in the FEC. This is because he is a political associate to the Senate president who has been very supportive to President Jonathan since the time when some forces did not want him to succeed the late president, Umaru Yar’ Adua. So, the worst that could happen is to redeploy him to another ministry. I remember there was a move to do that in the past when our prisons were recording incessant jail breaks but he was spared. This is Nigeria where anything goes, my brother.”
But an aide to the minister of interior, Mallam Salisu Dantata Muhammed, during the week blamed the applicants who gate-crashed into venues for the recruitment exercise in huge numbers owing to the general perception that they would be pensionable and one could get foreign postings, if eventually employed.
According to him, it was odd that many of those who turned up included employed bankers, engineers, medical doctors and nurses, teachers and others, who, he said, wanted to cross over to the Immigration Service at all costs.
He said the minister and officials of his ministry considered the tragic incident very regrettable, more so as the unexpected huge crowd shattered the near-perfect arrangements they had put in place against the anticipated huge crowd.
The ministry, he said, had put in place all logistics to contain crowd at the recruitment centres.
According to him, the many applicants who formally applied added to the problem by using Facebook and text messages to invite friends and relations who had no business being at the centres.
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