President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday gave N5 million each to 15 families of applicants who died during the 2014 Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment exercise.
He also presented employment letters to 35 other family members of the victims.
The presentation came exactly 365 days after the 15 applicants died at various stadia across the country, after authorities found it impossible to control the crowd Nigerians who turned up for the exercise.
After handing out the cheques and employment letters, Jonathan assured the public that the tragic exercise “will not happen again”.
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“This will be the last of such things,” he said.
Jonathan, who described the day as “sad”, stated that though death was inevitable, the circumstances of one’s death mattered.
He said the monies given to the families “should not be seen as compensation because it cannot replace the lives lost”.
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David Paradang, the comptroller general of Nigeria Immigration Service, said that out of the 45 candidates, 10 had to be replaced because they did not meet the criteria of the service.
He explained that some of them were shorter than required, overweight or over aged but the families have been asked to bring replacement for the slots.
3 comments
So no one gets punished for the death? The Prrsident has just accepted responsibility without commensurate reprehension of those responsible for the death of these Nigerians. Shocking!
Jonathan can~t deceive Nigerians bcuz elections is around .. gej must go. things must change
Thank God d election was postponed. If not nobody would av remembered d poor families. Useless govt. Change all d way. If u like share billions. We knw its from d crumbs that fell of ur personal looted funds