Protest Erupts In Abuja As Nigeria Immigration Service And Civil Defence Applicants Raise Concerns About Dubious Appointment Letters, Urging An Investigation Into Officials Conduct

Applicants of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment conducted by the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB) from across the country, on Monday staged a protest at the board office in Abuja, over the recruitment process and demanded immediate release of the list of successful applicants and investigation of the recruitment process.

The protesting applicants said that based on the recruitment advertisement published by the CDCFIB board on NSCDC recruitment portal on December 12, 2022, 5000 people were to be employed to fill the space of junior staff from level 3 to level 7, and on February 18, 2023, the board published on NIS recruitment portal for recruitment of 5000 people to fill up the space of junior staffs and senior staffs

They said that on May, 15 2023, the board shortlisted numbers of candidates for the NSCDC and NIS Computer Based Test (CBT) and on May 18, 2023, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) conducted the CBT test for all the applicants across the country after thousands of applicants had been screened out.

They noted that a lot of applicants were directed to go to their state of origin to write the CBT examination, and “According to some findings, we discovered that states had screened out a lot of ineligible applicants because on the day of the CBT, we were few in each state,” one of the applicants told HeraldReporters.

The applicant who spoke under the condition of anonymity said that after the CBT screening, “Everyone was hopeful to meet the next stage considering the low eligible applicants who were given the opportunity to meet up to the CBT screening.

“We did not see transparency right from the CBT because names that were pasted were not above 1,800 candidates from some states while some had lower than that number shortlisted for the CBT screening for both NSCDC and NIS.”

He said that on June 11, applicants were shortlisted for physical screening which divided into six geopolitical zones for both NSCDC and NIS, with Abeokuta in Ogun state, Kaduna in Kaduna state and Enugu in Enugu state as centres for NSCDC physical screening while Ibadan in Oyo state, Bauchi in Bauchi state and Benin City in Edo state were centres for NIS physical screening.

He said that “Though there was a phase before the CBT screening some applicants were screened out over age and others whose results were not up to the terms of the recruitment, the transparency we all expected became otherwise after the physical screening.

“The physical screening lasted for two weeks from June 14 till June 28, and our expectation was that the final list for documentation would be out by July 11, as they stated in the time table and we all hoped that at least 85% of the applicants would be given the job, but we have not seen the list of successfully shortlisted applicants and we see this as cheating and nepotism of the highest order.”

Another protester and female applicant said that they discovered that some people were already doing documentation while “most of us that went for physical screening have not seen our names. We have tried to check the portal but we can’t access the portal. We didn’t receive any message and we got information that some names have been mentioned and that they (CDCFIB) did not send any message to them.

“We are here to plead with the board to release our list because documentation will end on September 4th and we heard that those who are receiving appointment letters are the ones who didn’t go for exams nor physical training while we that risked our lives and went for exam and physical training, borrowed money to attend the training and the exams have not received anything.

“Some people are saying that they have godfather but we don’t have godfather. We are Nigerians and we are entitled to the job. We are pleading for the President to look into this issue.“

Addressing the aggrieved applicants, the Deputy Secretary to the CDCFIB appealed to the protesters to calm as the board had received their complaint and would look into the matter.