Aggrieved 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) have stormed the Board’s head office in Abuja to protest the recruitment process.

They said the recruitment advertisement published by the CDCFIB board on the NSCDC recruitment portal on December 12, 2022, showed that 5,000 people were to be employed to fill the space of junior staff from level 3 to level 7.

One of the aggrieved applicants who spoke with SaharaReporters narrated that on May 15 2023, the board shortlisted a number 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.

“According to some findings, we discovered that states had screened out a lot of ineligible applicants because, on the day of the CBT, there were few in each state.

“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,” the applicant narrated.

He further explained that on June 11, applicants were shortlisted for physical screening, and they were 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 continued, “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 protestor revealed 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 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 godfathers, but we don’t have godfathers. 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 down as the board had received their complaint and would look into the matter.