The
Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Mohammad
Babandede has promised to reinstate the 2000 dismissed recruits after
being laid off almost a year ago.
The CG made the promise on
Tuesday while addressing the dismissed personnel who were protesting
their “unlawful dismissal” at the Ministry of Interior, Abuja.
He
said “Those who gave you job gave it to you wrongly but it’s not your
fault. We must consider you for this job as soon as we can. Those who
gave it to you have no authority to give it to you by law.”
He
however, pointed out that the Service will have to carry out security
tests on each of them before they could be reconsidered while those who
will eventually get the job will have to get it on merit.
“I’m
not going to recruit those who protest, I’m not going to recruit those
who shout, I want to recruit those who have good legs and good
behavior,” he added.
The 2000 personnel were employed by a
presidential committee in 2015 following botched March 2014 recruitment
exercise where many candidates died and many more sustained injuries.
The
House of Representative had in April, 2016 ordered their immediate
reinstatement but a source in the Ministry of Interior told Daily Trust
that only President Buhari could effect the legislators’ directive.