Mr. Moro said the job seekers were
to blame for the stampede that killed over 13 applicants.
Angry Nigerians have called for the
minister’s resignation, alongside the comptroller of Immigration Service, after
seven applicants died in stampedes in Abuja, while at least four died in Port
Harcourt and two slumped and died in Minna, Niger State.
Unconfirmed reports say the total
figure of casualties is higher.
Hundreds of thousands of applicants
arrived at test centres in all the 36 states and Abuja, leading to stampedes.
In the Federal Capital Territory
alone, more than 60,000 candidates filled the national stadium venue of the
recruitment exams, and were allowed access to the venue through only a single
doorway.
Speaking in Jos, Plateau State,
where he inspected the exercise, Mr. Moro said the applicants should blame
their “impatience” for the stampede and the deaths.
He said applicants refused to follow
instructions handed them by the recruiters.
“The applicants lost their lives due
to impatience,” he told journalists. “They did not follow the laid down
procedures spelt out to them before the exercise; many of them jumped through
the fences of affected centres and did not conduct themselves in an orderly
manner to make the exercise a smooth one. This caused stampede and made the
environment unsecured.”
Mr. Moro said about 520, 000 people
registered for the recruitment exams, and that only 4,556 will be recruited at
the end of the exercise based on the available vacancies.
During registration for the job
tests, the Immigration authorities received N1, 000 from all the applicants, in
defiance of several directives from Nigeria’s House of Representatives that
government agencies refrain from charging job applicants.
The lawmakers have issued repeated
resolutions to that effect, but all have been disregarded by the agencies, and
other government establishments, including the military.
At 1,000 per candidate, the
Immigration Service would have pocketed at least N520 million based on the
total figure of applicants provided by the Interior minister, Mr. Moro.
The NIS had declared vacancies for
about 5,000 personnel across the country and engaged the services of an ICT
firm, Drexel, to create an online registration platform through which money was
extorted from applicants.
Drexel, however, came up with a
complex registration process which required the applicants to download forms at
cyber café, fill a part of it to generate a slip referred to as “Pay4me.”
It was the “Pay4me” print out that
qualified applicants to pay the sum of N1, 000 to dedicated NIS accounts in
designated banks all over the country.
The commercial banks that were
involved in the transaction included the United Bank for Africa, UBA, Fidelity
Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc and Ecobank Transnational Plc.
On the payment of N1, 000, a teller
was issued with data including candidates’ validation number, transaction
number, application number and application type, among others.
The teller was again taken to cyber
cafés where candidates used some of the information on it to complete the
registration process and get acknowledgement slips.
However, several thousands of
jobless Nigerians paid to grab the about 5,000 job opportunities advertised by
the NIS.
But the examination which took place
on Saturday turned bloody in several places including Abuja, Port Harcourt,
Rivers State and Minna in Niger State.
Applicants said the chaotic
arrangements for the test on Saturday was merely to justify the monies paid to
the service by the applicants.
“They did not make any plans for the
applicants. Even during the test, we had to fight and hustle for the question
papers. A lot of the papers were torn,” said one applicant who requested not to
be named.
“We paid N1, 000 during the
application process and I can tell you now that it’s a total fraud,” he added.
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, has called for immediate investigation into the deaths.
Olisa Metuh, who is the national
publicity secretary of the PDP, called on the Ministry of Interior and relevant
government agencies, to immediately begin an investigation to unravel the
remote and immediate causes of the stampede.
Mr. Metuh said the party was
“shocked and deeply saddened” by the deaths of job seekers.
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