It was an indication of system failure
across the nation yesterday. Twenty-three
Nigerian job seekers who left their homes
to sit for the Nigerian Immigration Service
(NIS) recruitment examination did not
return home alive. They were trampled to
death. Scores were seriously injured.
According to investigation, over 6.5m
Nigerians who paid an application fee of
N1, 000 each applied for 4,000 NIS vacant
positions and were all made to sit for the
exams at venues on the same day.
At the last count, LEADERSHIP Sunday
learnt that tragedy occurred in the FCT,
Port Harcourt, Minna, Gombe, and Benin
venues of the examination.
In the Abuja National Stadium, over 60,000
applicants turned up for the recruitment
test.
The 60,000-seater stadium was filled to
capacity when LEADERSHIP called at the
stadium about 11am, with thousands of
others milling around the stadium complex
and outside.
An immigration officer who did not want to
be mentioned said about 68,000 applicants
were at the stadium but only 4,000 would
be employed nationwide.
Most of the applicants were seen looking
haggard and frustrated and anxiously
looking for refreshment. Scores were said
to have collapsed during an early morning
stampede at the entrance gate to the
stadium. A source at the National
Hospital, Abuja, said 10 of them died.
An eyewitness and an applicant, who gave
his name as Nuhu, said the tragedy
happened shortly after 7am when a
security official opened the gate and
candidates who were already gathered
rushed in.
According to him, all the efforts the
gatemen made to ensure orderly
movement in the complex were futile as
the throng of applicants pushed and
shoved, resulting in the trampling of
scores, mostly ladies.
Although the Immigration Service, which is
under the supervision of the Ministry of
Interior, is yet to release the official list of
casualty, a source at the National Hospital
has since confirmed the incident. Efforts to
get the service spokesman, Mr Obuah,
proved abortive.
LEADERSHIP Weekend can authoritatively
report that, contrary to fears that the
aptitude test would have been cancelled,
the service still administered it on a rather
short notice to the applicants.
The exams which lasted just 35 minutes
started about 3:43pm and ended 4:29pm.
In Port Harcourt, scores of persons were
injured during a stampede also at
Liberation Stadium in the Rivers State
capital.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY gathered that the
stampede occurred when the over 20,000
applicants tried to force their way into the
15,000-capacity stadium.
At the time when our reporter visited the
Liberation Stadium, most of the injured
persons were said to have been rushed to
the Military Hospital, located along the
Aba-Port Harcourt Road, for medical
attention.
When contacted, the public relations officer
(PRO) of the Nigerian Immigration Service
(NIS) in the state, Mr Abang Bisong,
confirmed that there was a stampede at
the recruitment exercise in the state.
Bisong said, “During the stampede, some
candidates fell and were trampled on, while
some became unconscious. They have
been taken to the military hospital for
treatment and we have not received any
information on their condition.”
The Braithwaithe Memorial Specialist
Hospital, Port Harcourt, a Rivers State
government-owned secondary health
facility, confirmed that four persons died in
the stampede.
A doctor on duty, who pleaded anonymity,
told journalists that out of the 12 persons
that were brought to the hospital, four died
while four others were still in critical
condition.
He disclosed that another four victims of
the stampede were revived and
discharged.
Pregnant women Dies , 30 injured
A pregnant women was among thousands
of jobseekers participating in the Benin
zone of the Immigration recruitment
exercise. She slumped and died inside the
main bowl of Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium
following a stampede.
The applicants had turned up for the
exercise as early as 6am, but the
screening couldn’t start till 2:15pm when
some of the applicants started leaving after
the stampede .
Trouble started around 10am when the
Immigration officials in charge of the
screening lost control of the crowd,
prompting the soldiers on guard to start
shooting sporadically into the air.
Over 28, 000 applicants that took part in
the one-day exercise started running for
safety that resulted in a stampede .
As the time of filing this report, over 30
persons who received various degrees of
injuries had been revived at nearby
hospitals, while the remains of the
pregnant woman had been taken to an
undisclosed hospital.
Some of the applicants in an interview
condemned the way and manner the
exercise was conducted.
Mr Isaac, an applicant, expressed shock
over the inhuman way they were treated
by the recruiting officers.
“Can you imagine, sir, this is 2:10pm; we
are still loitering around with no concrete
information from the recruiting officers.
“Oga, they should help ask the
immigration officials why the shooting . To
organize the applicants is easy. Now, the
shooting has caused a big problem. Now a
pregnant woman has died, while other
people who sustained injuries have been
hospitalized.”
No fewer than 15,000 people participated
in the NIS recruitment exercise in Kano.
The NIS comptroller in the state, Mr Zitas
Nanpon, made this known in an interview
with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on
Saturday.
NAN reports that the screening and
examination took place at the Sani Abacha
Stadium, located in Kofar Mata in Kano
metropolis.
“Right now not fewer than 15, 000
applicants are on ground and more are still
coming into the venue. The standard is
that everybody that has an
acknowledgement slip is eligible for this
exercise,’’ he said.
Nanpon, however, commended the state
government for providing the venue which
had enough space to accommodate all the
candidates.
He assured the applicants that the
examination would be conducted after the
screening, and advised all the applicants to
be patient and orderly to ensure that the
exercise was hitch-free.
In Benue, no fewer than 17, 800 applicants
took part in the exercise at the Aper Aku
Stadium, Makurdi.
The public relations officer of the service in
Benue, Mr Tersoo Ukeyima, told NAN in
Makurdi that the NIS was overwhelmed by
the number of applicants and did its best
to accommodate them.
Ukeyima said there were challenges in
crowd management, but commended
officers for discharging their duties in
controlling the crowd.
He said no casualties were recorded and
assured that the First Aid Department of
the command was on hand to tackle any
eventuality.
Some of the applicants, who spoke on the
issue, commended the officers for the
orderly conduct of the exercise, saying
they were satisfied.
Some, however, expressed fears that the
exercise might not be completed on
schedule owing to the crowd.
In Gombe, 5,000 candidates from Gombe
and Borno took part in the exercise at
Abubakar Umar Memorial Stadium, Gombe.
The NIS comptroller in Gombe, Mr Y. G.
Emmanuel, said: “As you can see, the
exercise is going on and we have been
here since 3am to ensure everything is in
order for a smooth exercise.’’
No fewer than 20,000 of the 26,000
applicants that applied turned up for the
aptitude test at the Kaduna centre
yesterday.
Murtala Square, venue of the exercise for
the Kaduna centre, was filled to capacity
when our correspondent visited.
As early as 6am yesterday, the centre was
besieged by a mammoth crowd with the
applicants putting on white shorts and
shirts.
The majority of the candidates were seen
on a long queue while others were
hanging around. They described the whole
exercise as a formality and total nonsense,
alleging that those to be employed had
already been picked.
Our correspondent observed that some of
the applicants got frustrated and left the
venue of the test without writing.
It was also confirmed that some of the
applicants collapsed due to the crowd and
hot weather, but as at the time of filing the
report, there was no reported case of any
casualty.
One of the applicants, Adams Shuaib
Olowo, who spoke to our correspondent
said, “I was here as early as 6am because
the text messages we received from the
organizers of the aptitude test said the
exercise will commence 7am. But the time
is 2pm now and nothing has been done
yet.”
Meanwhile, all the roads leading to the
venue were all barricaded while shop
owners and business ventures shut their
doors as a result of the large crowd.
Comptroller of immigration, Kaduna State
command, Apang Takum, who spoke to
newsmen at the venue, said his command
was doing everything possible to ensure a
hitch-free aptitude test in the state.
7 applicants die in 3 Jos centres
Seven applicants lost their lives in three
out of the 37 centres where the aptitude
test into the Nigerian Immigration Service
was conducted yesterday while scores of
others were injured as a result of
stampede occasioned by the large turnout
for the exercise.
The minister of interior, Abba Moro, told
newsmen while inspecting the exercise in
Jos, the Plateau State capital, yesterday
that information reaching him indicated
that seven people lost their lives at the
National Stadium Abuja, Niger and Lagos
State, adding that two of the victims were
female and five male.
“The applicants lost their lives due to
impatience; they did not follow the laid-
down procedures spelled 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.”
He pointed out that 520, 000 people
applied for the exercise across the country,
and that the centres were spread to avoid
overcrowding, adding that only 4,556 will
be recruited at the end of the exercise
based on the available space.
Moro disclosed that the deputy controller
of immigration operation and passport told
him that he had cancelled the exercise in
Lagos due to the unruly behaviour of the
applicants and told them to wait for
further directives.
According to him, the Ministry of Interior
embarked on the process to ensure
transparency, adding that the mistake will
form a base for how to organise future
exercises.
3 fear dead, 4 critically injured in Minna
Three persons out of the 11,000
candidates who turned up at Women Day
Secondary School, Minna, for examination
into the Nigeria immigration service were
yesterday feared dead.
LEADERSHIP Sunday findings revealed that
the incident occured in a stampede during
accreditation for candidates to enter into
the examination hall and the situation got
out of the control of immigration service
personnel.
It was learnt that when they were unable to
control the crowd, they opened tear gas
and in the process seven persons
collapsed and were rushed to the hospital
where they gave up the ghost.
Security sources told LEADERSHIP Sunday
that Immigration Service personnel were
overwhelmed by the crowd that lined up to
2 kilometres from the venue of the
examination, adjacent Federal Secretariat
Minna to enter into the examination hall.
Curiously, thousands of the job seekers
came in exotic cars. All the roads and
spaces in and around the stadium were
crammed with vehicles, making it difficult
to gain access to the stadium.
A candidate said he saw serving
policemen and others who wanted to
change jobs at the venue.
One Sampson said he had been at the
stadium since 5:45am but that at 2pm
when he spoke to this reporter, the
examination had not taken off. The officials
separated degree holders from those with
diploma.
Jobseekers accuse FG of fraud
Unemployed young men who gathered at
the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu,
yesterday for the Nigerian Immigration
Service (NIS) recruitment exercise have
accused the federal government of
defrauding them.
Some of the jobseekers who spoke to
LEADERSHIP Sunday said they came to the
stadium about 8am for the examination but
were disappointed over the refusal of
officials of the NIS to conduct the exercise.
Our findings revealed that most of the
jobseekers were forced to travel back to
their residential areas when it was clear to
them that there would be no recruitment
test..
“This is a fraud, after we paid over N1,000
to purchase forms. I ‘m not happy that
officials of NIS decided to treat us like this.
I’m sure that they were forced to
announce that the exams will take place
today.
“It is unfortunate that the federal
government through the NIS has defrauded
us. Some of us borrowed money to pay
for the form. I bought canvass and other
materials this morning but I went to my
house with all the materials because I
could not use them. I don’t know where
our hope lies. That is why people are
travelling out of Nigeria every day.
“How can the government collect N1,000
from each of the applicants and refuse to
at least conduct exams for us. We know
that they have already taken their brothers
and sisters but they should have at least
allowed us to take the exams,” one of the
applicants who spoke on condition of
anonymity said.
The Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium was filled to
capacity.
Immigration stampede a national disaster
– TUC
The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC)
has described the death of Nigerians
during a stampede at the recruitment
exercise conducted by the Nigeria
Immigration Service as a national disaster
that shows the critical state of Nigeria’s
unemployment.
The TUC also called for full-scale
investigation into the matter, while also
commiserating with the families of the
dead.
TUC president Comrade Kaigama Bobboi,
who spoke to leadership Sunday, said
those wounded during the stampede must
be taken care of by government.
He said, “There is also need to probe the
amount collected from these young
Nigerians. Because this is just
Immigration. Whatever you see now will be
replicated in police, customs and other
government agencies.
“This goes to show the level of
unemployment in the country. Our heart
goes to the families of those who lost their
lives. May God grant them the fortitude to
bear their loss.”
PDP demands immediate investigation,
mourns victims
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
yesterday said it was extremely grieved by
the death of young Nigerians during a
stampede at the recruitment exercise
conducted by the Nigeria Immigration
Service at the National Stadium, Abuja and
demanded an immediate investigation into
the matter.
According to a statement by PDP’s
national publicity secretary, Chief Olisa
Metuh, the ruling party is “shocked and
deeply saddened by the news of the
untimely death of the young citizens who
were at the exercise not only to secure
jobs but to be allowed the opportunity to
contribute towards the development of the
nation”.
The party said it was “unfortunate and
disheartening that the victims paid the
supreme price while trying to be more
useful to the nation”.
While commiserating with the families of
the deceased, the ruling party prayed for
the speedy recovery of the wounded and
charged the Ministry of Interior and all
relevant agencies of government to
immediately swing into action to unravel
the remote and immediate causes of the
stampede.
The PDP also charged all government
agencies and parastatals as well as all its
elected and appointed officials at all levels
to redouble their efforts in curbing
unemployment in line with President
Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation
Agenda and the PDP manifesto.
Meanwhile LEADERSHIP Sunday has
reliably gathered that the minister of
interior, Abba Moro, and the comptroller-
general of immigration, Mr David Shikfu
Parradang, may lose their jobs following
the tragedy.
A top presidency source who pleaded
anonymity disclosed that the president was
shocked and furious at the ugly incident,
pointing out that such tragedies have
become a recurring decimal in the Ministry
of Interior.
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