For every action, there is usually an accompanying consequence. When on March 15, 2014, Nigeria’s Minister of Interior at that time, Abba Moro, alongside Drextel Tech. Nig. Ltd, Mrs. Anastasia Daniel-Nwaobia, his Permanent Secretary and F.O Alayebami, a Director in the Ministry, embarked on an Immigration Recruitment Exercise, without doing their home work well, they didn’t know that a day like this will come. Well, things went sour and tragic along the way, leading to the death of about 20 job applicants at the Abuja National Stadium venue of the exercise.
The families of the victims wept and gnashed their teeth; angry Nigerians equally criticized and condemned the act. But nothing much really came out of their cries and complaints. Then a year passed. And nothing still happened. However, before the second year will also come to an end, a new leadership took over. And in the course of their looking into the matter, they unearthed all of eleven charges bordering on obtaining by false pretense, procurement fraud, money laundering, etc.
And on Monday, February 29, 2016, all the accused (Led by Moro) were slammed with the above charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Justice Anwuli Chikere of the Federal High Court, Abuja, who they were brought before, ordered that they be remanded at Kuje Prisons, pending the determination of their bail application on March 2.
The now messy and tragic Immigration Exercise, YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine gathered, attracted about 676,000 applicants, who paid N1000 each. And in spite of raking in over N600 million from it, adequate provisions were not made for their safety, leading to the death of about 20 of them and now the trial of Abba Moro and his co-accused.