When the immediate past Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro and 2 others were arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, 22nd February 2016 and charged to court on 11-count charge; many believed it was one of the ways which President Buhari-led administration is “fighting corruption”.
Other school of thought subscribed to the notion that, some very influential players in the present administration (Benue Figures inclusive) were doing what they know how to do best.
Not many people could buy into the insinuation that those standing trial for offences that are less their makings may have been framed up by the present leadership of the Ministry of Interior; in a way of discrediting their predecessors and/or scoring some cheap political points. Yet, in the midst of these possibilities lies another index which is more practical and tenable. Nigerians who are bewildered over the prosecution of Abba Moro and others, over offences that were not premeditated; have for long queried the rationale behind the arraignment of former Minister of Interior, Former Permanent Secretary, Former Director of Account and Rectel Tech Ltd, the company which handled the online registration of the ill-fated NIS recruitment of March 15th 2014; whereas, an arrow head in the establishment who also admitted that he supervised the screening exercise nationwide was excluded from the ongoing trial. It is however, very appalling that Mr. David Paradang, the then Comptroller-General who superintended the unfortunate recruitment exercise and as such, should have been made Principal Accused Person, was let off the hook and, in a twist of it, became the Principal Witness to the Prosecutor. Thus, Paradang, who admitted in court that he coordinated the screening exercise, was standing face-to-face and testifying against people who were neither Officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service nor participated in the screening exercise of March 15th 2014 which was greeted with stampedes in some centres and as such, culminated into loss of lives. It is only in Nigeria that people at the higher echelon pay for the sins vis a vis negligence of their subordinates while the subordinates move freely and in this case, turn around to prosecute their Senior Officers over their own compendious anomalies. This is in itself a corruption and it is capable of debilitating the much talked-about ‘fight against corruption’! From the statements he made under oath, all right thinking Nigerians except EFCC knew who the real culprit should be. The robe he intended using to drag the accused was inadvertently the same robe he used to curdle himself into the dragnet of the law. As I began to ruminate over the intent behind his appearance in the first place, I quickly came to terms with the popular reasoning of the people. First, the David Paradang that I know would not have consented to the idea of advertising job openings at the NIS wherein members of the public would be availed the opportunities of applying for positions of their choice. He would rather conceal it within the rank and files where nepotism and favouritism would become prominent. Nigerians still have it on record, that the NIS under David Paradang glorified itself in job racketeering and ignoble extortions from job seekers. The media houses were awash with stories of how innocent applicants paid large sum of money before they could be shortlisted into the service and some were not propitiously employed, despite the payment. The image of the NIS under CG Paradang was such that, the formation and by extension, the federal government was engraved in constant blackmail of money-for-job deals and on many occasion, depleting the hapless job seekers of their odoriferous Modus Vivendi. So, when the Board overseeing the parastatal decided to throw it open for interested job seekers to apply for the position of their choice in accordance with the principles of recruitment; it would just take the Comptroller-General a tip of finger to object to the open recruitment system. Another factor that must be taken into consideration, before anyone could take Paradang serious is the fact that, the ‘Masquerades’ behind the ongoing trial of Moro and others would have probably offered the former Comptroller-General the clean slate to avail himself the hatchet job and get his job back as CG. Mr. David Paradang is currently under suspension by President Mohammed Buhari over gross misconduct and act of insubordination. Our dear Comptroller-General was abruptly purged from his hollowed office when, he organized a kangaroo recruitment exercise where he allegedly recruited 4000 officers into the Immigration Service (mostly his relatives and cronies), without recourse to the laid down principles by the board. The exercise was however quashed by the board, under the leadership of the then Permanent Secretary. Since he was placed under suspension, two different Comptrollers-General have been appointed by the President with no hope in the tunnel to reinstate Paradang. Hence, it would be a feasible reason to infer that the CG cum PW1 may have been offering himself to be used as tool so as to get his office back. A critical analysis of Mr. Paradang’s testimonies in court shows that he didn’t know what he was doing and that he may have been cajoled into appearing to testify against the organization where he presided as number one during the exercise. At first, he denied having knowledge of the intention to recruit officers into the Immigration service. He claimed he only read about it on the newspaper as he was not present at the meeting where the decision was taken. Having risen to the peak of his career, Mr. Paradang should have known that a single dissenting Officer who was not present at a board meeting for reasons mentioned above, has no capacity to repeal any decision reached by the majority votes of those present; if the quorum was formed. Going further, Mr. Paradang told the court that he set up a sub-committee to plan and coordinate the recruitment exercise. At another point, he confessed that he actually approached the Reltel Tech Ltd and solicited for fund for the Saturday 15th March 2014 recruitment test; but the firm claimed the N1000 it collected from the applicants was for online registration logistics. The former CG however admitted that a sum of N300, 000 was sent to each of the 37 Controllers across federation as logistics for the recruitment exercise in the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. When the Judge asked him of the source of the money, he said it was released by Reltel Tech Ltd. Those who were in court that fateful day would better explain the mood of the former CG when he kept emphasizing that fund was released directly to the Controllers at the States command. As human, I felt for him when he said they bypassed him to disburse funds to Controllers; but on the other hand, I was consoled in the fact that, if Mr. Paradang was allowed to handle the disbursement, he would have probably used that opportunity to truncate all other efforts for the success of the exercise. That thought breezed in to me and I couldn’t wade it off. Mr. David Paradang also admitted that he instructed the Deputy Comptrollers-General (DCGs) to oversee the exercise in their respective zones. Even though he was not candid enough to tell Nigerians how much himself and the DCGs got. Could it have been possible that the Controllers got a whooping N300, 000 each for the exercise, whereas, the ACGs, DCGs and even the CG did not access any amount from the firm in respect of the exercise? Could that also be the reason why as the Comptroller-General, Mr. David Paradang neglected the nationwide recruitment exercise of Saturday 15th March 2014 and rather opted to dancing Azonto in a birthday party in Jos when the exercise was going on? In a civil society where the rules of law respects or segregates no man; and under a pragmatic administration where the Chief Executive Officer means what he says and says what he means, then somebody like CG David Paradang should have been docked and made to also pass through the process of defending himself like other accused person, and not to stand as a prosecution witness. Even though I believe in the general school of thought that stampede is a natural disaster and not the making of any man; but since it has become a subject of litigation, all the parties involved should have been made to defend themselves and not playing politics with the unfortunate incidence. (Yemi Itodo, a Public Affairs Commentator writes from Abuja).
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