Protesting recruits must be screened before employment – says NIS CG

The Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, said the dismissed 2,000 Immigration recruits must pass through screening before being reabsorbed into the Service. 

Babandede said this at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja following the continued protest by the 2,000 dismissed illegal recruits. The 2,000 Immigration recruits have been protesting the directive by the NIS that they must past through background checks/screening before employment. The Immigration boss said that the background checks‎ which include: security clearance, drug test, certificate verification and the ‘age on rank’ policy must be strictly adhered to. Babandede‎ ‎said the service would continue with the planned screening scheduled to hold from on Aug. 29 to Sept. 4 at the NIS headquarters. “Failure to submit oneself for screening would be regarded as withdrawal of interest in the recruitment exercise,” he said.

 He said that there was no ulterior motive attached to the screening exercise and assured that those cleared would be reabsorbed. The comptroller-general, who maintained that the 2,000 recruits were not screened before they were recruited in 2015, noted that “we can’t give a riffle to a drug addict, he will kill people’’.

 He said those who were protesting against the screening exercise were those who “are drug addicts, brandishing fake certificates” and are “too old to be employed into the Service”. He assured that no one would be victimised, stressing that government had made financial provision to capture their salaries. The 2,000 recruits were employed into the Service by a Presidential Committee in February 2015 after the ill-fated recruitment in March, 2014 where some applicants died and many others sustained injuries, but were dismissed later in the year.