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Total of 16 NIS job seekers feared died Nation Wide,several other injured

Published

11 years ago

March 16, 2014

Over 125,000 applicants in Abuja and Lagos alone chasing 4,500 jobs!
16 feared dead in the scramble. Thousands fainted from stampede and
exhaustion.
Many more applicants thronged the remaining 35 states of the
federation.
These casualty figures from the recruitment test centres of the
National Immigration Service (NIS), held across the country,
yesterday, told the story of Nigeria’s frightening unemployment
situation.
In Lagos and Abuja alone, 56,000 and 69,000 applicants respectively
sat for the job test.
Thousands of others took the exercise in other state capitals.
NIS allegedly raked N6billion from the applicants as processing fee.
Each applicant paid N1,000.
At the National Stadium, Abuja, which was the centre for the
Federal Capital Territory, FCT, eight applicants were reported
dead.
Four others were feared dead at the Port Harcourt, Rivers State
centre, three in Minna, Niger State and one in Benin-City, Edo
State.
Unconfirmed reports claimed the Benin-City victim was a pregnant
applicant.
Stampede was reported in Akure where 12,000 were invited for the
test.
Thousands of certificates were allegedly lost at the Ondo State
centre.
At the Abuja centre, the thousands of applicants were overwhelmed
with emotions as eight of their colleagues were allegedly taken to the
mortuary.
About 50 were said to have fainted and several others injured.
The tragedy, it was learnt, happened in the morning when the crowd
of applicants was trying to gain entry into the test venue.
The test eventually started around 3.30p.m.
One of the applicants at the centre, Abubakar Isah Wada, told
Sunday Vanguard, yesterday.
“Government is not treating unemployed youths well. Due to this
disorganised nature of our country and lack of discipline, some persons
died this morning and several fainted,” Wada said.
“Government needs to recognise the plight of unemployed graduates
and not waste time and money on issues that are not important to the
development of this country”.
Another applicant said: “Immigration (NIS) should have divided the
applicants and run this test on different days rather than bringing all of
us here like this to pass through this suffering. If President Jonathan
really wants to come back in 2015, this is his ticket”.
At the National Hospital, Abuja, the Director of Management
Information, Mr Tayo Haastrup, confirmed the death of seven
persons and 40 sustaining various degrees of injuries in the stampede at
the recruitment venue.
At the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt venue where four
applicants reportedly died, no fewer than 23, 000 sat for the test.
Some of the applicants blamed the incident on poor crowd control.
According to them, the 16,000 capacity stadium was relatively small
to accommodate the 23,000 that turned up for the exercise.
They said security men had a hectic time controlling the crowd of
applicants. “Some applicants who were finding it difficult to get into
the stadium suddenly started pushing their way through. Some persons
reportedly stepped on those who fell on the ground,” an eye witness
said.
According to him security men had to fire shots into the air to stop
those still outside from pushing to get inside the stadium. ” More
persons would have died if the security men had not shot into the air.
The shot stopped those who were outside from pushing in “, he stated.
Some of the applicants said they lost the originals of their certificate
during the commotion.
A pregnant woman was among those
who died from exhaustion.
But the spokesman for the NIS in Rivers State, Mr Bisong
Abang, denied deaths during the stampede. He however said those
who sustained injuries were treated by medics on ground, adding that
those who turned up for the screening exercise far exceeded the number
of applicants.
Some critical cases were rushed in an army ambulance vehicle with
registration number NA 307 EOI to hospital for medical attention.
Applicants were still being attended to by NIS officials at the time
our correspondent left the stadium.
At the Minna centre, four of the 11,000 applicants were said to have
died while scrambling to gain access into the examination hall.The
candidates had reportedly been subjected to standing on the queue for
several hours while the chief examiner was calling the applicants into
the hall. It was learnt that the candidates, having waited for hours
and becoming restless, started shunting which led to a stampede leaving
the examiners confused.
In an effort to bring orderliness, officers of the NIS stationed at the
Women’s Day Secondary School, venue of the test, fired cannisters
of teargas into the crowd. This led to several of the applicants falling
down and trampled upon.Three of them were reportedly confirmed
dead. The remains of the applicants, it was learnt, were deposited at
the Minna General Hospital. Contacted,Controller of Immigration in
Minna, Ezekiel Kaura, confirmed that five people were rushed to
hospital after the stampede but could not confirm how many people
died. He also said 11,000 applicants were expected to sit for the test.
Many of the 12,000 applicants, who sat for the examination at the
CAC Grammar School, Akure, lost their certificates in the stampede
that attended the exercise.
The NIS recruitment exercise in Benin-City turned tragic when a
pregnant woman died at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium Benin-
city venue after collapsing. About 20 others were said to have been
injured.
She reportedly died in a stampede. The 20,000 applicants who came
from different states of the South- south thronged the stadium at
about 5am but it was learnt that screening could not start till about
2:30pm.
Many of the applicants complained bitterly that the exercise was
poorly conducted and wondered why people could be subjected to such
inhuman treatment.
In the meantime, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday,
challenged government agencies, as well as elected and appointed
officials at all levels to redouble their efforts to curb unemployment in
the country, just as it described the death of the NIS applicants as
shocking and unfortunate.
In a statement by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief
Olisa Metuh, the party, while calling for investigation into the
remote and immediate cause, said it was extremely grieved by the
death of the young Nigerians.
What a country….