The Nigerian Immigration Service has paraded three suspects, including two policemen, for allegedly defrauding members of the public through an employment scam.
The two policemen, Bitrus Gata and Asartia Johnson, both of Gombe State Police Command and one Oluwatayo Komolafe, were said to have issued out fake letters of employment to their victims after collecting various amounts from them.
The Comptroller-General of Immigration, David Parradang, in Abuja on Monday, said the service was not recruiting and cautioned the public against falling prey to solicitations from fake Facebook accounts for employment into the immigration service.
Parradang said, “The Presidential Committee on Immigration Recruitment has yet to announce the date and modalities for recruitment into the NIS. The right information will be publicised once the committee concludes arrangements.”
One of the suspects, Gata, who admitted to engaging in the job scam, said he was a policeman attached to a divisional police station in Gombe State.
According to him, one Thomas promised to assist the applicants to get jobs in the immigration service, but the contact failed to procure the job for the candidates after collecting about N440,000.
He explained that he sought the assistance of his colleague and co-suspect, Johnson, to get a refund of the money that was given to the said Thomas, but was unable to get the money before he was arrested along with Johnson.
He said, “My colleague was trying to assist me to get a refund of the money given to Thomas for the job into the immigration service, but we were still trying to get the refund when we were arrested in Gombe and brought to Abuja.”
Johnson denied involvement in the job scam, saying he merely assisted a colleague to seek a refund of the money from the man that allegedly promised to procure the jobs in the NIS.
He said, “I don’t know anything about this case. My colleague sought my assistance to get the money he gave to one man for jobs in the NIS. He had collected N440,000 from candidates and gave it to the man to get jobs for them in the immigration service. I don’t know anything about this case.”
Komolafe, who defrauded one Mercy Osesa and three others of N280,000, allegedly gave her a fake provisional offer of appointment into the service, purportedly signed by a non-existent commandant administration, Ibiajulu Rosemary.
Osesa had taken the letter to the Edo State Command of the NIS for documentation where she was informed that she had been scammed.
Komolafe, who claimed to be an indigene of Oye Ekiti in Ekiti State, said that the fake appointment letter was given to him by one Alhaji he met during the last recruitment exercise at the National Stadium, Abuja.
“The Alhaji said he is a philanthropist and promised to help me get a job in the immigration service. He didn’t give me his number, saying the line was always busy. He said I should pay N30,000 for the job and he was the one that gave me the letter that I gave to Mercy. I am willing to assist the NIS to arrest the Alhaji,” Komolafe said.
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