Accountability for NIS STAMPEDE Begins

The public interest case of PATIENCE NONYE OMEZIE & KASIM TUNDE SULEIMAN Vs FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA has been filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, FCT, Nigeria

The case challenges the immigration job interviews of March 15, 2014 across Nigeria in which 19 citizens including pregnant women died and many others injured in their bid to get recruited into the 4th Defendant - Nigerian Immigration Service.

We are hopeful that this legal action will send the right message to the authorities and the citizenry about accountability and the right value of lives of Nigerian citizens.

The case was prepared, and court hearings will be lead by a team of senior advocates of Nigeria - Funke Adekoya SAN, Jibrin Sam Okutepa SAN, Ikeazor Akaraiwe SAN and Spaces for Change.S4C's Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri.

S4C PARTNERS NATIONAL BUREAU OF STATISTICS ON JOB CREATION DATA-GATHERING

In compliance with the Freedom of Information (FOI) request Spaces for Change.S4C filed in March 2014, we are happy to report back that we have received the summary of the job creation statistics detailing of national statistical surveys covering Q4 2012, Q3 2012 – Q1 2013 and Q2, Q3 & Q4 2013 from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Spaces for Change filed the FOI request following the tragic Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Stampede which unmasked the grave unemployment situation in Nigeria. The FOI request demanded to see the breakdown and methodology used  generating the official data of 1.6 Million jobs created between 2011 and 2013.

VIDEO: Youth Unemployment in Nigeria

This conversation around youth unemployment became extremely necessary in the wake of the tragic recruitment test conducted by the Nigerian Immigration Service on March 15, 2013. A notice of 4556 vacancies attracted over a million unemployed applicants from around the country.

In this video, Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, executive Director of Spaces for Change discusses "Youth Unemployment in Nigeria" with Dr Seun Kolade and Kayode Ogundamisi on ‪#‎PolitrickswithKO which was aired on BEN TV London on Thursday, March 27, 2014 by 10.00 p.m.

WATCH NOW!

NIS Recruitment Tragedy: Interior Minister Says He Won't Resign

The Minister of Interior, Abba Moro has said that he would not resign over the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment test which claimed about 16 lives and left several others injured.

The Minister who spoke on a radio programme Monday morning in Abuja said resigning from office would amount to walking away from the problem.

Immigration Recruitment: Contract Awarded To Dead Company

 Revelations from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have shown that last weekend’s recruitment exercise carried out by the Nigeria Immigration Service, which ended in stampedes across several states and the deaths of at least 20 job applicants, was handled by a dead company.

According to a CAC letter to LEADERSHIP dated March 21, 2014, Drexel Nigeria Limited, which was awarded the contract to carry out the recruitment exercise, had not filed its annual returns to the commission since 1994.

NIS Never Endosed the Recruiment Exercise?

NIS TRAGEDY: PHOTOS FROM THE FIELD

WWW...What Went Wrong?

• Most of the NIS job applicants have been unemployed for an average of four years. 
• Applicants applied to be recruited into the NIS in October 2013 in response to vacancy notices published in national dailies.
• Application was done by completing an online form, and making monetary payments into NIS account numbers in various banks including UBA and Diamond Bank Ltd. 
• The transactions were duly acknowledged via pay4me electronic payment slips which indicated that the application fee was N850 and the transaction fee was N150 totaling N1000

What Happened?

On March 15, 2014, Nigeria witnessed a needless and avoidable tragedy in which about 19 young Nigerians including pregnant women died and some others were injured in their bid to get recruited into the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). Over 19 of these Nigerians were killed in a stampede in various stadia across Nigeria including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.