Human Rights groups under the aegis of Civil Liberties Organisation and Paths of Peace Initiative on Tuesday protested to the National Assembly over the abandonment of over 51,000 Nigerians who were recruited from 36 States of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory by the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
In a joint address, the group alleged violation of rights of the affected Nigerians by virtue of the fact that having been engaged by the Presidency and were trained as paramilitary as Federal Task Force under the Sure-P and FERMA scheme, they have been abandoned without being paid their entitlement in the last 3 years.
“We are protesting violation and abuse of fundamental human rights of 51,000 Nigerians who were recruited from the 36 States of the Federation including Abuja,” the group said.
The group lamented that top echelon in Jonathan administration extorted the sum of N4.29billion as logistics from unsuspecting applicants only to discover it was a scam 3 years after.
“These innocent Nigerians were tricked into this job without any feeling that it could be an organised fraud considering the high calibre of the people involved in the scam”, they maintained.
They added: “Their names and positions have been uncovered and forwarded to the appropriate authorities, because these officials extorted the sum of N4,029,000,000.00, that was said to have been for employment form, I. D. Card, medical test and training kits,” they lamented.
The Commandant of the Task Force, Moss Garba appealed to the National Assembly to intervene by making sure that they were paid their entitlements, and reinstate them having been trained as paramilitary officers.
“We were trained as Task Force officers with mandate to enforce, recovery of federal government properties, right of way, setbacks eradication traffic control, monitoring and evaluation, so we want Senate’s intervention for our payment and reinstatement,” he said.
Meanwhile, a security operative attached to the National Assembly pleaded not to mentioned was seen attending to protesters, assuring them of Senate President’s concern for their plight
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