Employment racketeering: Immigration, Civil Defence open up

* Say scammers go to any length including use of social media

• NIS sets up anti-fraud unit, urges victims to report

• We pay between N200,000 -N300,000 each – Victims

The Management of Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have separately raised the alarm over the nefarious activities of employment racketeers and blamed cases of reported employment racketeering on scammers and fraudulent individuals who usually cash in on the desperation of Nigerians to secure quick employment opportunities.

The Deputy National Public Relations Officer and Asstistant Commandant of NSCDC, Sola Odumosu, told The Daily Times in an exclusive interview that the Corps had put up several warning adverts and awareness workshops on the nefarious activities of these scammers.

He ,however, said that it is regrettable that some members of the public still go ahead to patronise the racketeers.

Odumosu also cited the flooding of the internet, social media and the opening of websites containing employment advertisements, giving directions to applicants on how to pay and obtain application forms as some of the ingenious methods devised by the scammers.

He said: “Scammers can go to any length including fronting the name of senior officers, or pretending to be employers of the Corps with the intention of misleading gullible applicants. They only come to report only when matters got out of hand or late. We have apprehended about 30 of such criminals and sent them for prosecution’’.

On how the agency usually embarks on employment, the NSCDC spokesman further disclosed that only when they obtained approval from the federal government and after having advertised such openings will they interview and employ new staff.

Also speaking to The Daily Times in an exclusive chat, the Public Relations Officer of the NIS, Mr. James Sunday, urged members of the public who had been lured into paying money for recruitment by any of NIS staff to come forward with clear evidence to enable the service apprehend such staff.

Sunday, who spoke through his deputy, Mr. A.O. Okpua, also disclosed that the agency has established anti-fraud unit to promote transparency even in the employment process.
The Daily Times recalls that the NIS had late last year dissociated itself from websites and social media accounts that promise to employ persons into the service upon payment of certain sums of money.
The NIS, at the period, also urged Nigerians seeking employment into the service to disregard money-for-job offers by individuals, saying they are scams.

The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mr. David Parradang, had reiterated through a statement that many criminal elements were currently using fake websites and social media accounts to defraud unsuspecting members of the public, seeking enlistment into the NIS.

The statement added that the criminal elements used the fake sites to pose as the Comptroller-General and the PRO of the service to offer job placements to unsuspecting members of the public.

The Daily Times investigations reveal that the due to the increasing rate of unemployment, many Nigerians and phantom organisations have devised several ways of giving or gaining employments such as through bribery and corrupt practices among others.

For instance, some people pay their ways (bribes) into the organisation which could be traced to some officers who are bent on finding means of survival or as a way of earning extra income to complement the little salary they earn which is always not enough.

It is instructive to note that some scrupulous officers collect certain amounts of money ranging from N200, 000 to N300,000 from civilians, promising them jobs while most of the promises are empty and fake. Again, some of the officers involved in these acts are usually low ranked officers who have no job to offer to the unsuspecting applicants.