Jonathan's Offer Of Automatic Employment For Injured Immigration Job Seekers; Applicants Besiege National Hospital, Saying, ‘We Were Injured Too!

Job seekers who are desperate to secure a job in Nigeria are moving to take advantage of the offer of automatic employment to job seekers who got injured in the recruitment exercise of the Nigeria Immigration Service last Saturday.

President Goodluck Jonathan offered automatic employment tickets to injured applicants during the recent recruitment exercise of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

Less than 24 hours after the announcement, about 200 applicants have approached the National Hospital, Abuja, seeking to be registered as beneficiaries in the presidential largesse. A source close to the hospital said that the applicants had been coming in trickles, claiming that they had treated themselves at certain private hospitals after the stampede.

The source, who sought anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, also disclosed that some of the applicants claimed that since the federal government was going to rely on the medical records from the hospital, they also needed the medical certificate to be considered for the automatic jobs.

He added that some of the applicants, who claimed to have sustained serious injuries at the incident, brandished documents of participation at the botched exercise at the National Stadium in Abuja.

The source said: “There is a deep problem in the land and people are becoming more desperate. This is sheer wickedness. Can you imagine a situation where some people are now claiming that they sustained injuries during the stampede and treated themselves in private hospitals and now need money since government has said that it will pick the medical bills?

“Incidentally, federal government is yet to make any funds available to us as we treated the victims without collecting any amount from them.

“Some of them are even claiming that they are related to the dead victims, saying that they are ready to take the three slots earmarked for the deceased. It will also interest you that some of them brought lawyers that will file legal action against government and claim compensation on their behalf.

“There was this pregnant woman who refused to be persuaded on the grounds that she must be given automatic employment or she would remain in the hospital. We had to use diplomacy before she agreed to leave.”

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday cancelled the recruitment exercise conducted by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) at different venues across the country that led to the death of over 20 Nigerian jobseekers.

The unemployed graduates including three pregnant women died as a result of the stampede which occurred at Benin, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Minna during the recruitment exercise conducted by the Ministry of Interior.

Minister of Information Mr Labaran Maku, who announced the president’s cancellation of the exercise after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday, said Jonathan also directed that the families of those who lost their lives should be given three slots each in the NIS to be filled by their family members in a fresh recruitment, adding that one out of the three must be a woman. The injured are to get automatic employment.

With this pronouncement, 62 injured persons and three people from each of about 20 applicants that lost their lives are expected to get automatic employment from the federal government.

Briefing State House correspondents, the minister disclosed further that a special committee chaired by the chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FRSC), Mrs Joan Ayo, has been set up by the president to conduct a fresh recruitment exercise to fill the vacancies in the NIS.

Other members of the committee are comptroller-general of the NIS David Parradang, a representative of the inspector-general of police, a representative of the comptroller of the Nigeria Prisons Service, a representative of the corps marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corps and a representative of the commandant-general of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.


He further said that President Jonathan will meet with the families of the deceased to express condolences as soon as he returns from his trip abroad.

“We assure the nation today that every step will be taken to look into the various lapses in recruitment exercises into the public service, to be sure that all those who are qualified get access to the public service without going through this kind of experience,” Maku added.