Immigration tragedy: Resign, NLC, TUC, lawyer tell Moro

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria on Friday demanded the resignation of the Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro.

Their demand followed Moro acceptance of responsibility for circumstances leading to the death of no fewer than 16 people during the ill-fated March 15 recruitment into the Nigerian Immigration Service.

Moro, who appeared before the Atiku Bagudu-led Senate Committee on Interior probing the fatal exercise on Thursday, reportedly said the tragedy could have been averted if only those who registered online for the recruitment had attended.

In an interview with one of our correspondents, the NLC General Secretary, Mr. Chris Uyot, said it was not enough for the minister to accept responsibility.

He said, “The man has no choice than to accept responsibility for the tragedy. If found culpable then he would have no option than to resign. As a minister, he has to accept the responsibility from day one even if the tragedy was caused by another person since he is the supervising minister.

“As the head of that ministry, he is responsible for anything that happens in that ministry. There is nothing new in him accepting responsibility for what has happened. It is not enough to accept responsibility; he has to bear the consequence of his action.

“What were the measures put in place to ensure that the exercise was hitch- free? From all indications, such measures were not there. Investigations will prove the real situation with time.”

In a separate interview, the President of TUC, Mr. Bobboi Kaigama, said the honourable thing for him to do is to resign. “We cannot toy with the lives of Nigerians. In other climes he would have resigned,” he said.

On his part, a legal practitioner, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, called on the minister to quit office because he had accepted responsibility for the tragedy.