FG Files 11-Count Charges Against Ex-Minister, Moro, Three Others

EX-INTERIOR MINISTER, ABBA MORO WITH ONE OF THE INJURED VICTIMS AT THE NATIONAL HOSPITAL, ABUJA

The Federal Government on Tuesday took the long-awaited step of filing charges against the immediate past Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and three others before the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The erstwhile minister is to be arraigned on an 11-count charge. He is to be prosecuted alongside the ministry’s ex-Permanent Secretary, Anastasia M. Daniel-Nwaobia, F. A. Aleyebami and Drexel Global Technology Limited.
The charges were filed on behalf of the Federal Government by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and endorsed by a director in the commission’s Legal Department, Aliyu Yusuf.
Moro and others are charged with money laundering, obtaining under false pretext by allegedly inducing applicants in the botched Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment exercise of 2014 to part with N1,000 each.
They were also accused of breaching the Public Procurement Act with the manner they went about the recruitment contract allegedly awarded to Drexel.
It would be recalled that on Saturday, March 15, 2014, at least 23 young Nigerians, who were among hundreds of thousands of unemployed graduates that trooped out to various centers across the country for the NIS recruitment exercise, were confirmed dead due to overcrowding, stampede and exhaustion, with several others injured.
Despite calls for his resignation and prosecution for the ill-fated recruitment exercise, Mr. Moro remained in office till the end of the Goodluck Jonathan administration on May 29, 2015.
Speaking the next day after the incident, a defiant Moro told reporters that the applicants’ impatience and failure to follow instructions were the cause of the tragedy. He, however, soft-pedalled about two weeks later when he appeared before a Senate Committee on Interior for two days of public hearings, as he accepted responsibility for the events and expressed his grief.
He also said he was saddened that his effort to put an end to nepotism and favoritism in the recruitment process had resulted in the death of applicants.