The Nigerian Immigration Service on Saturday March 15 2014, conducted aptitude tests in major cities in Nigeria in its bid to fill 3000 vacancies it earlier advertised.
Across the country, the exercise unfortunately turned out to be a national disaster as there were stampede in virtually all the recruitment centres and many candidates who dreamt of returning home with a job rather returned lifeless.
According to News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) , seven candidates died following a stampede in the National Stadium Abuja where the exercise took place. In the Abuja centre, 20,000 candidates were on ground for the test. According to reports, the Stampede started when these number of people were made to go through a little gate into the stadium. Trust Nigerians every candidate wanted to be the first to go through. By the time security official succeeded to bring the situation under control, seven people, six women and one man were dead and several others sustained various degrees of injuries.
In Port Harcourt centre four men died in yet another stampede. A source at the hospital told NAN :
"I can confirm to you that four have died, four others in critical conditions, while four were treated and discharge. "
The Port Harcourt stampede also started as candidates tussled for the little available space into the Liberty Stadium. Some were pushed down and trampled upon by the crowd. 25,000 candidates were forced into the stadium for the test.
In Benin, three pregnant women lost their lives in the Stampede. The cause of this particular stampede was that security operatives started shooting into the air to control the crowd in the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium. Instead of controlling the crowd, the action further aggravated the Stampede as people ran for dear life. 26,000 candidates were present for the test.
In four cities of Northern Nigeria, a total of ten women collapsed while waiting for the exercise to begin.
As news of these deaths rolled in, people believe that the situation is a laughable one. Every year, Nigeria push over a hundred thousand graduates into the labour market without creating job to engage these teeming graduates. Over a hundred thousand youths applying to fill 3000 vacancies further buttresses the notion that majority of Nigerian youths are unemployed and the government is doing nothing about it.
The NIS recruitment disaster has been blamed on the inability of the immigration officials to properly handle the exercise especially when over 25,000 candidates showed up in every city across Nigeria to fill only 3000 vacancies.
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