NIS recruits: Attend Monday fresh screening or forget job —FG

THE Federal Government has advised the dispersed 2000 recruits of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to attend the fresh screening exercise scheduled for next week Monday or forget the job opportunity.

Comptroller-General of NIS, Mr Muhammed Babandede, who said this on Wednesday, while briefing newsmen in Abuja, insisted that such screening was not strange to the law enforcement agency like immigration service, all over the world.

He reiterated government’s earlier position that their recruitment process was illegal, adding that it was the intention of the government to ensure that the right thing was done in order to place them appropriately.

The service had earlier announced in a statement that the decision to re-screen the dispersed recruits was reached in the aftermath of an emergency meeting of the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration, and Prisons Services Board (CDFIPB) on August 11.

The 2000 dispersed officers were expected to go through necessary security clearance, undergo drug-test, certificate verification, as well as the implementation of CDFIPB policy on “age on rank.”

Reacting to various protests against the decision of the government by some of the affected persons, the NIS boss, however, said the aggrieved recruits should realise that those who recruited them did that beyond the instruction of the former president, adding that “those who committed the offence had been punished.”

He said: “The only condition we gave them is to pass through certain test and they don’t want to pass through that test. Do you blame government for that? I think we should commend the president for approving this kind of procedure.

“It is very commendable, as we could have started fresh recruitment with other people, but we said we want to take them alone; when we screen them and they pass the screening, they will get their jobs.”

He noted there was no ulterior motive behind the said screening, saying “the assurance I will give is that first, we are going to follow the due process. What kind of sinister motive will be when, for example, if we find somebody, who is over 40 years and want to start government work as regimented officer? We say ‘no, you can’t, you are not qualified to be there’.

“What sinister motive do we have if we find out that you have a fake certificate or if we find out that you test positive to drug? We can’t give riffle to someone who is a drug addict, such will kill people with stray bullets,” he added.