“Illegally” fired: 2000 “jobless” youths sleep outside Aso Rock
President Muhammadu Buhari is shunning hundreds of Nigerian youths protesting their expulsion from the Nigerian Immigration Service.
The protesters who besieged the entrance of the Aso Villa on Friday are yet to be addressed by the President or any of his aides since then.
Determined to get a reaction from the government, the protesters spent the night at the entrance to the seat of power.
The 2,000 recruits of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, were, according to a statement from the Federal Government, “dispersed from the service after having undergone training and received employment letters in February 2015.
The statement said the NIS would commence the re-screening of the dispersed lot for re-admittance.
The service however listed several guidelines for the screening of the applicants including security clearance, drug-test, certificate verification as well as the implementation of CDFIPB policy on “Age on Rank”.
But the protesters disagree with some of the FG’s facts.
“First, this said publication referred to the #NigeriaImmigration2000 as ‘Applicants’,” Aisha Yesufu who led the march said on Friday.
“It is pertinent to state categorically and without mincing words that #NigeriaImmigration2000 are not applicants, but have been officers and men of the Nigeria Immigration Service since May 2015.
“Citizens who have received training, have been documented, issued a service number, and so on can never be referred to as applicants because they are employees of the Service.
They are also kicking against the ‘Age on Rank’ policy implementation amongst other things. The policy places age restrictions on ranks within the service and is applicable only to new employees.
The presidency has been silent. For a government that has tried severally to convince its citizens that it identifies with their pains, one wonders why.
The protest is ongoing. We’ll keep you posted..
