A large number of aggrieved Immigration officers, who were dismissed from the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) last year, staged a protest yesterday at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. They were mostly ignored by government officials.

Following the botched 2014 recruitment exercise into the NIS where several persons lost their lives, the Federal Government last year announced vacancies in the Service.

Over a million persons applied, about forty thousand were shortlisted for employment while only two thousand of the applicants [now known as #NigeriaImmigration2000] were recruited in May 2015 by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan after an employment process that was widely considered credible.

The recruitment process was said to have been rigorous and involved computer-based tests, interviews and screening.

Elsie Ajoku, one of the thousands employed by the Service says: “The whole thing was free and fair. People really didn’t really expect to get the job, they were stunned, they thought that they had to pay money. When we got in, people at the offices already working in immigration were like ‘I already paid hundred thousand for my cousin but he didn’t get the job. How did you people do it? Do you know anybody?’ People there that tried to use their own influence or whatever to get people in were wondering how we got in without paying money.”

The two thousands persons who were offered employment by the NIS at the time went on for a three months training on courses relevant for employment into Immigration Service -without any payment or stipend.

But they were suddenly dismissed from service on August 20th, 2015 without any reason whatsoever after a circular instructing that they should be sent home indefinitely was sent to each of the 36 states NIS command.

The House of Representatives in April 2015 directed the Ministry of Interior, the Civil Defence, Fire Service, Immigration, and Prisons Service Board (CDFSIPB) to immediately recall the disengaged officers.

An instruction the Ministry of Interior and the NIS failed to heed.

However, a press statement issued by the NIS earlier this week called for the #NigeriaImmigration2000 to come for yet another screening in Abuja at a given date. The statement described the officers as “applicants” rather than duly recruited officers of the NIS with service numbers.

Sadly, names of new persons, who were not among the #NigeriaImmigration2000, were ostensibly smuggled into the new list.

“They called them for a new screening but the thing is; they released names of the NIS 2000 but they released new names as well – people that didn’t go through the processes. The problem is that this screening or interview that is coming up in Abuja – are you sure that it’s not just a way to screen us out?”

It is yet unclear why the NIS disengaged these officers who have been offered employment letters and given service numbers. But it is easy to assume that the officers were either disengaged based on political reasons or it proved to be unfavorable to the powers that be.

“I think that maybe they wanted to get their people in through the back door,” says Ajoku. “What I was thinking before was because it was last year’s process and it was free and fair -because people that thought they won’t get the job, got the job and the people were qualified, they were employed – and I feel that people who wanted to let in their own people from the back door couldn’t do that so they tried to destroy the whole thing, like bring down the whole process because they couldn’t do their own back door employment.

“And because of all the cries and protest and rallies, they tried to do this re-screening. There are new names people that weren’t employed before, people we don’t know because I know people from my command that were employed. I also went to Kano with my cadre and I met people there. So there are new people there – people who didn’t go to Kano or training school – they just put their names out of nowhere.

“We’re going to go Abuja. We will go with our certificates to go and see what happens but I don’t know.”

According to a speech by activist and #BBOG campaigner, Aisha Yesufu, new persons were issued employment letter by NIS through the back door in February 2016. These persons were employed without recourse to laid down procedure.

It would be recalled that in the past month there have been accusations that some Federal Government agencies (CBN, NNPC, FIRS) had unfairly and secretly recruited children and relatives of top government functionaries and cronies of the present administration without following due process.

The accusations were quickly denied by the agencies involved and the Presidency.

It remains to be seen if this is just another case of smoke without fire.