…Says Nigeria no longer records mass death at recruitment into Immigration
The group in the Niger Delta defending Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, said in Port Harcourt on Christmas day that he is the best performing minister in the present cabinet and should rather be supported, not vilified.
The group said the NYSC discharge certificate issue had been laid to rest through effective investigation by an independent body, wondering why the haters were still reviving the matter.
The group, the Niger Delta Rights Agenda (NDRA) has thus given the persons accusing the minister for falsification of his National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) seven days to come up with evidence or face punitive repercussions.
Rivers-born Darlington Nwauju, spokesman of the pro-Ojo group, who addressed a press conference in the Garden City said Tunji-Ojo is not only a youth of the region but a hardworking and creative minister who they said has helped the economy to grow up to 4%.
Nwauju accused the group led by one Davis Ijele from Kogi State of using over seven different non-governmental organisations to attack the minister just to make it look like many groups were saying the same thing.
The NDRA said: “We make bold to say that policies framed under his watch at the Ministry of Interior have for the first time in the history o Nigeria turned that Ministry to the most efficient in terms of service delivery; and this Ministry daily justifies taxpayers’ money.
“Nigeria as at today stands at a GDP of over $286bn at a growth rate of up to 4%; these are policies that stimulate economic growth like creation of productive jobs, human capital development, and incentivizing personnel working under the four paramilitary agencies under this Ministry have greatly contributed in the push to reflate our economy.
“As we speak, over 75,202 have been promoted across board in the cause of the two years’ service of the Minister; 30,000 young Nigerians have an opportunity for the first time in as many years of the creation of the Ministry to have pensionable jobs as against the past disgraceful experience where our youths were invited to stadia across the country from Kano to Port Harcourt and from Benin to Calabar, Lagos, etc in the guise of applying for jobs under the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), but ended up losing their lives! This Minister has changed that very ugly narrative.”
Saying he that alleges must prove, Nwauju said: “We want to confirm to the press today, that to show evidence that Isaiah Davies Ijele, the arrow head of the allegations against the minister, is the president, founder, and proprietor of the following unregistered groups: Accountability Front for Justice & Good Governance; National Youth Reform Coalition; Civil Action Network for Transparency; Police Integrity Movement; Nigeria Integrity Movement; Integrity and Transparency Alliance; and Centre for Leadership Legacy.
The NDRA said if Ijele did not publish his facts, the group would proceed to formally request relevant authorities to investigate and prosecute Ijele.
He said: “Specifically, on October 17, 2025, a petition with reference no AFJGG/CC/001 was sent to the Code of Conduct Bureau and Presidency demanding the investigation of Tunji-Ojo. Curiously, the three organisations that were used to write this petition all linked to same individual Isaiah Davies Ijele), were only engaging in any visible civil society campaign for the very first time with Dr Tunji-Ojo as person of interest!”
He wondered how NGOs would for the first time start campaigns with one person. “When were such groups created? When were they registered? Who are trustees or executives of such groups? A simple search of the CAC portal exposes the fact that these are pseudo groups created for the singular purpose of extorting the Interior Minister.”
Explaining the Minister’s side of the matter, NDRA said: “From our independent investigations, the Minister was remobilized in 2019 but his discharge certificate was omitted in the certificate printing application which was no fault of his and of course such administrative lapses occur every now and again given the volume of graduates the NYSC grapples with at every cycle.
“The Minister therefore wrote to the NYSC Management about October 18, 2022, demanding his original certificate which was only delivered to him February 28, 2023. This fact was also corroborated by the investigative journalism carried out by an online publishing outfit (name withheld) pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (PIA).”
The NDRA wondered why the fellow did not make do with the outcome of the PIA action but went ahead to refresh the accusations.
“This individual and his supporters have not ceased from defaming the Minister who is a bona-fide son of the Niger Delta and in fact, the most productive on the current cabinet of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We, therefore, cannot afford to sacrifice one of our best on the altar of sponsored media campaigns nor abandon him to the ferocious attacks of enemies of excellence and sterling performance.”
