last Saturday, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) conducted recruitment examination for jobless youths across the country. ENE OSANG recounts how the Abuja exercise, which held at the National Stadium, claimed seven lives and left many wounded.
At the Abuja National stadium
The Immigration recruitment exercise was slated for 7am last week saturday where applicants were to begin with a test of fitness and afterwards sit for the main exams by 4:pm. This turned sour as the crowd which turned up for the test was overwhelming.
Blueprint gathered that over 80,000 applicants came for the examination without no proper security in place considering the insecurity situation of the country.
The venue immediately turned to a market place as most people came in to sell different items to hungry applicants, as there were no shops around where they could not get anything to buy because most of them left their homes early.
A sachet of water which is originally N10.00 was sold for N50.00, bottled water N200.00, galla N100.00, amongst other items.
Abba Moro’s side of the story
The Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Patrick Moro, while speaking exclusively to Blueprint, said the NIS recruitment examination which claimed seven lives in Abuja and in general about 19 persons across the country was not a deliberate act, saying their intention was ‘patriotic and noble’.
Morro, admitted that things went wrong at the stadium on saturday because the number they expected was overwhelmed by the uninvited crowd that came for the exams, describing the situation as a ‘national tragedy’.
He craved the indulgence of Nigerians to allow reason prevail in the matter, adding that the death of persons was a national tragedy and enough calamity for all.
He described the situation as bad, while explaining that the arrangement made for the examination was overwhelmed by the presence of those who were not invited to write the test.
He however assured that necessary measures would be taken to ensure that the exercise is completed, stating that the situation around the examination will be rearranged.
“We must find a way of rearranging the situation if we must use the examination results. We have gotten many suggestions from well meaning Nigerians and I assure you that investigation is ongoing.
“I am from a poor family and for five years I trecked six kilometers everyday just to complete primary education so I know what poverty means. If I am not guilty I don’t want to go with that allegation and, if I have done anything that has compromised the situation I am not scared of being held responsible,” he said.
He further refuted claims by some persons and groups that his Ministry is to be blamed for the deaths of 19 people at various venues of last Saturday’s pre-employment test “The stampede which led to the death of some persons at several of the centres used for the aptitude test was caused by an influx of uninvited participants.
“I personally supervised the exercise in Jos on saturday and when the question papers were not enough, I asked the officials to go and make photocopies so that everybody will write and everything went peaceful. It was these uninvited persons who caused the stampede, as they struggled to gain entry into the venue, whereas they were not among the people for whom seating and other arrangements had been made,” he said.
“Surprisingly, people who did not even apply, who were not shortlisted for this exercise turned up, including pregnant women, to undertake the exercise, and that was most unfortunate,” Moro stated.
Moro confirmed that seven persons died in Abuja, while 11 persons had been placed on intensive care at the National Hospital.
According to the minister, the NIS recruitment exercise in 2012 was shrouded in controversy, and people were accused of nepotism and tribalism, ‘and that was why we opted for an online portal to avoid problems’.
“There can’t be any sufficient explanation to the unfortunate loss of lives but concerning the application fee, the federal character commission advised we should not charge more than 1,000. and after much evaluation we let the organization which also handles the recruitment portal for the Nigerian Army and Navy work for us.
“I have guarded against financial inpropriety right from when I was local government Chairman and that goodwill has kept me on. Only God knows why this happened, everything at the stadium went wrong and we will set up an investigative committee on this to ascertain what happened exactly so as to avoid such mistakes in the future,” he said.
Who handled the recruitment portal?
Rumours had it that the wife of the Senate President Helen Mark and the wife of the Minister, were those who the recruitment portal was contracted to, where applicants paid N1000.00 each for registration. Both of them including some Senators who have been accused of having a share from the money realized from the registration portal have long denied the allegation.
Applicants take on the apptitude test
Mrs Esther Udoh, a graduate of English from the University of Abuja who is yet to secure any job since she graduated in 2011, said she normally does not attend such crowded recruitment examinations because most times the vacant positions would have be taken.
“I only came because I paid to register and considering they sent me invitation to write the exams I felt they must have conducted some form of screening before we were contacted. From the look of things, I don’t think they did but I will just keep my fingers crossed and be hopeful,” she said.
Another applicant who gave her name as only Dorcas said she was disappointed at the way immigration handled the exercise. ‘How will they mark all the scripts’ she asked.
Blueprint spoke to one of the immigration officials who refused to mention her name but was among those to supervise the examination and she also regretted that the examination didn’t go well.
“I don’t know why they have to invite everybody when only about 4000 applicants will be employed. We have advised our boss here on the easiest way to control this crowd here but he doesn’t take anybody’s advise, now see how it turned out. If I have my way, I would have left this place because it is not safe security wise,” she lamented.
Federal Government’s reaction
President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered the immediate cancellation of the tragic recruitment test.
The president gave the order at Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting.
Details emerging from the president’s directive indicate that families of deceased applicants are to be given three slots each in a fresh recruitment exercise, one of which must go to a female member of the family.
Also, all those who sustained various degrees of injuries are to be given automatic employment.
