Immigration Claims To Have Recorded Smooth Recruitment Exercise, Amidst Deaths

The Nigeria Immigration Service on Sunday said the recruitment tests, it carried out nationwide, was successfully conducted in 31 states of the federation.

This is contained in the e-recruitment report submitted to the Minister of Interior, Mr Abba Moro, a copy of which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

According to the report, only Port Harcourt, Niger, Jigawa and the FCT recorded casualties.

It said that over 16 deaths were recorded in these states and about 20 persons sustained injuries and were currently receiving treatment.

The report said that while immigration officers in Ogun were pelted during the exercise, the exercise in Lagos state was cancelled due to unruly conduct of applicants.

While confirming the report to NAN in an interview, Moro said that the ministry still intended to continue with the recruitment of successful candidates.

He said that the exercise which was cancelled in Lagos would still be held on a later date.

The minister said although the ministry had thoroughly prepared for the successful conduct of the exercise, it did not anticipate the large crowd that showed up in various centres.

“We were working with the exact number that applied which is over 500,000 and officers had been deployed to handle this number.

“We did not anticipate that even persons who did not apply and not eligible to sit for the exam will come making the stadia very crowded and unmanageable” he said.

He said that although officials did not thoroughly manage the crowd during the exercise, he called for understanding as the ministry would investigate the situation.

He assured Nigerians that recruitment into the immigration service would still go on as the ministry was poised to ensure employment of successful candidates.