A rights group, the Due Process Advocates (DPA), this morning dragged the Nigerian Government, the Ministry of Interior, the Minister in charge of the Ministry, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and its Comptroller General to court over last Saturday’s tragic recruitment exercise of the NIS.

The suit was lodged at a Federal High Court, Abuja, by a team of lawyers led by Emeka Ugwuonye, who is also the DPA National Coordinator.

In court paper sighted by News Express, “the Applicants are claiming general damages in the sum of N1,000,000.00 (One Million Naira) or N50,000,00 each, (Fifty Million Naira) (as the case maybe) as well as exemplary damages of N1, 000,000.00 (One Million Naira) or N50,000.000 (Fifty Million Naira) (as the case may be) and a refund of the N1,000 taken from each of them; all against the Respondents jointly and severally.”

Ugwuonye in a statement issued after filing the suit explained why they decided to sue. He said:

“On the 9^th of September, 2013, Mr. Parradang, the Head of the Immigration Service, had become aware of a plan by the Minister of Interior to organize a recruitment racket under the guise of filling some vacancies in the Immigration Service. Mr. Parradang was uncomfortable with the plan for many reasons, including that it was unsafe and unfeasible. He wanted it done in the right manner to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of the past. On that September 9, 2013, Mr. Parradang sent a letter to the Minister.

“In his letter, Mr. Parradang expressed serious reservations about the recruitment exercise. The Minister insisted on pursuing it as he planned it. Mr. Parradang could not raise any further objections because he did not want to jeopardize his job. He remembered how the same Minister forced his predecessor out of office the previous year. So, Mr. Parradang gave up, relented, acquiesced and played along just to keep his job.

“If Mr. Parradang had maintained his position and followed his conscience, the debacle that shocked the conscience during the recruitment exercise of 15^th March 2014 could have been avoided. But he lacked the courage to face up to his supervising Minister. Preserving his job became more important than preserving his conscience and saving the lives of his fellow Nigerians.

“I chose that dramatic, but true, beginning to illustrate the disastrous failures, incompetence, lack courage, greed and corruption that led us to the death, traumatization and total humiliation of the Nigerian youth in the hands of the Nigerian Immigration Service and the Ministry of Interior.

“For the avoidance of doubt, out of sheer corruption and greed, Mr. Patrick Abba Moro, Minister of Interior, decided to raise money illegally for his personal purpose by scamming the most economically vulnerable members of the society – the unemployed youth – through a bogus scheme to fill up vacancies in the immigration service. To cover up the sham, the Ministry commenced elaborate registration and testing exercise, just to give the impression that there were genuine vacancies for jobseekers. In fact, Mr. Moro simply wanted to steal money from the poorest of the poor. But hundreds of thousands of people he had taken their money must now come for the exercise, except that it was all a dangerous joke.

“As a result of cruelty, corruption and greed, Mr. Moro’s handlers unleashed upon the unfortunate crowd he had lured out to the stadium death, pain, suffering, mayhem, utter confusion, and dashed hopes.

“What happened on March 15, 2014 contained all the elements of evil that we have seen as part of bad governance in Nigeria. There was no way it could be justified. It has caused so many so much hardship and injustice. Faced with such injustice and arrogance of power, our group, the Due Process Advocates (DPA) had no further choice than to seek for justice for those who have been cruelly treated and so horribly deprived.

“I have therefore filed a lawsuit against the Government of Nigeria, the Ministry of Interior, the Minister of Interior (personally). The Attorney-General of the Federation, the Immigration Service and the Comptroller of Immigration (personally). We are seeking damages for the victims of the fiasco accordingly. Our goal is simple. Somebody has to stand up for the weak and the vulnerable and for all those who have no one to fight for them. Faced with such injustice and abuse of power, we could not simply keep quiet and let it pass without recourse. We are asking for justice in a fair, peaceful, just and lawful manner.

“In pursuing this measure, we bear no grudge toward any government agency or any official. It is just that wherever there has been injustice, especially of this magnitude, there ought to be some remedy. With such a horrible and shameless failure of the executive arm of government to carter for the interest of the unemployed youth, the lawsuit we filed would give the courts a chance to intervene for justice. Employment, they did not get; but may they now get justice.

“Despite our peaceful and lawful approach to this problem, it is proper to expect resistance and fierce opposition from the Government. For instance, once it became clear that we were headed to court for justice, the Government cancelled yesterday the ill-fated recruitment exercise and announced that it would offer “automatic employment to the victims of the ill-fated recruitment exercise”. But that was only a joke and wicked propaganda aimed at breaking up the solidarity that is building among the victims and pressure groups like us, who seek for justice. Otherwise, how is it suddenly possible that the Government would offer automatic employment to all the victims, including those that have died? Such cynicism, cold and calculated indifference to the problems at hand shall further increase, not diminish, our resolve to seek for justice for the victims.”

•Photo shows part of the crowd of applicants at the NIS recruitment exercise that invited the law suit.