We saw hell at immigration recruitment centres — Applicants

Last Saturday, about 19 candidates died in stampedes during the recruitment into the Nigerian Immigration Service. Millions of them had applied for 4,500 immigration jobs. Some of the applicants share their experiences with OLUWOLE JOSIAH, OLUFEMI ATOYEBI, FEMI MAKINDE, CHUKWUDI AKASIKE, MUDIAGA AFFE, ARUKAINO UMUKORO, TOBI AWORINDE and PETER OKEUGO

We were beaten

Some of us wrote in the open field because the hall could not take everybody. One lady fainted in the process and she was later resuscitated by the few medical personnel present. We came to the venue as early as 6.30am but we wrote the exam at 4pm. We were beaten with whips to stay on the line.

– Eka Akpan (Calabar)

 No test papers

I got there at 7am. There must have been about 80,000 of us by noon. Applicants started climbing the fence. The fence had spikes, so those climbing got injured. One nursing mother had to hold her baby above her head, because of all the shoving. I saw some applicants stealing the merchandise of sellers. There was a woman that had cartons of bottled water. Some applicants stole all her water and shared it among themselves and broke her leg in the process. Some of us had to contribute money for her. The officials brought the test papers and sent everyone to their seats. There was a fight when it was discovered the papers were not enough. After about an hour of writing the test, some people had still not gotten test papers.

— Afolabi Aiyela (Abuja)

 It was a punishment

The exercise was like a punishment. The soldiers, immigration officers and the civil defence officers were hard on us. They told us to stand in the sun or sit on the ground to write the exam. We were hungry and thirsty, but we were not allowed to go out of the gate to eat anything. Yet, we waited from 6am to past 6pm.

— Femi Alade (Akure)

 Exam papers never came

The whole exercise was not properly organised. We sat only for mathematics. When they brought the paper, they threw it into the air and those who couldn’t catch it, could not write the exam. The other two papers – Use of English and General Knowledge – never came.

—  Clara Anionwu (Enugu)

 They shot at us

There was a time that some people started rioting. The immigration officials started shooting. They were shooting as if they were in the warfront. Then everybody started to run.

— Emeka Okonkwo (Awka)

We were ordered about

They kept on turning us around, telling us, ‘Do this! Do that! Kneel down! Stand up!’ We were there from 7am till 3pm. They told us to come prepared to jog, and we did. But we didn’t do anything at the end of the day. Aside that, they gave us 30 minutes for an exam we wrote without desks or seats; 10,000 of us were crammed in a hall that would usually take 6,000 people. It was not a palatable experience at all.  I saw one guy who sustained a leg fracture from all the running around.

– Felix Anigekwu (Delta)

 I trekked for miles

I got to the centre as early as 6:30am. Although I wrote the test but what I did could not be called a test. Some of the security personnel at the centre prevented those of us who came to the centre early but allowed late comers who were their relatives and friends to write their names. I trekked several kilometres before I could get a bus to take me home after the test.

— Sodiq Adedotun (Osogbo)

 Lots of pregnant women

I go there around 7am. I didn’t get in till about 4.30pm. We had a lot of pregnant women and those that came with their kids. We were over 4,000. Going through the screening process was hell. At a point, there were gunshots in the air to scare people. I even had to jump in through the window to be able to get in to write the exams. There were no seats. So, when we got in, the officials just gave us question papers. We didn’t spend up to 30 minutes before our papers were collected.

— Eniola Adetunji (Abeokuta)

They flogged us

The military personnel did not waste time to flog us when we were slow to obey their commands. For instance, we were already seated in class when they came in and instructed that we should leave the hall under five minutes. Those that were slow were flogged while some of us that attempted to go out through the windows were injured.

— Elizabeth Ayi (Calabar)

 A terrible exercise

The exercise was very terrible and rough. We sat on the field and that was where we wrote the exams. They gave us only mathematics. The invigilators even encouraged people to copy each other. It was terrible.

— Adedemi Omotunde (Akure)

A sad experience

It was really a bad experience. We had to trek for miles. I got to the stadium around 8am and left there around 6pm. The crowd was huge.  Getting into the main bowl of the National Stadium, Surulere, was a challenge because every entrance was locked.  People had to smuggle themselves in through a very small opening at one of the entrance points. That was how I gained entrance. I wrote two papers, when I discovered I had taken the paper meant for SSCE holders.

—  Ajibola Ogunmuyiwa (Lagos)

We saw hell

We went through hell. We waited on the queue for long hours and by the time the officials came to administer the test at about 5pm, some of us were under a tree. I saw others sitting on the bare ground writing the exams. It is a shame. They gave us only thirty questions. We thought we are going to be tested on maths, English and general questions.

— Hamza Shaibu (Akure)

A terrible day

It was a terrible situation. People, who struggled to pass through the only gate that was opened, trampled on each other. Five people, including a pregnant woman died. The pregnant woman joined others to jump the fence. She hit her stomach on the ground. We heard that she later died in the hospital. At a time, they started throwing question papers and applicants began to struggle for questions papers. I could not join them in the scramble for question papers. So, I had to leave.

— Blessing Ihentuge (Port Harcourt)

We scaled fences

It was a terrible experience. I got there around 6am. But there was nobody to attend to the huge crowd. The immigration officials came around 11am. We waited under the scorching sun. The NIS officials were very few and they were not coordinated. Many people tried to gain entrance by scaling the wire fences.

— Ojong-Obi Alex (Lagos)

It was choking

If I had known it was going to be so strenuous, I wouldn’t have left my house. I suffered that day. I arrived at the venue around 7am. The crowd was unbelievable, everywhere was choked. We waited for hours under the scorching sun. By the time they opened the gate; everyone struggled to enter the venue. People rushed in and stepped on others who fell down while trying to gain entrance. Many were injured. I was lucky because I decided to stay back when I saw the rush. I’m still feeling the pain of going through such stress from the exercise. I had to trek for many miles. It was frustrating. They really dealt with us.

— Muyiwa Jibola (Lagos)

My question paper was rumpled

A girl collapsed in the morning but she was revived later. They discarded  the online acknowledgment slips we came with. I had to scale a fence to get into the main bowl of the stadium. Applicants snatched question papers from NIS officials and sold them for N100 each. I wrote with a squeezed paper.

— Mary Okoro (Lagos)

God saved me

I lost my pair of shoes during the stampede. It was God that saved me because I almost lost my life. One guy fainted after he was trampled upon. A woman by my side also suffered the same fate. They had no security and medical personnel on the ground. The problem was the crowd and the hot weather. I had to leave when it became clear that no space was available for me to take the test.

— Mercy Chioma (Port Harcourt)

People fainted

I got there at exactly 8am. It was too rowdy and there were over 50,000 applicants. I stood for over five hours, twisting and turning to get myself comfortable. At a time, I had to go under the bridge to lie down, because the experience was just unbearable. Eventually, I just had to leave. I didn’t take the exam. I left at 4pm, when some applicants started battering the immigration officers and forcing question papers out of their hands. There were cases of people who fainted from fatigue and stress. Bottled water, which normally costs N50 was sold for N100. Everyone was dehydrated. It was not fun at all.

— Temitayo Martins (Lagos)

We were trampled on

Some of the immigration officers were flogging us as if we were goats. The stampede happened when they said, ‘let’s do it local government by local government.’ As they started opening the door, people rushed in. That was when ten people fell on the ground and they were trampled upon. The other woman, I don’t know if her spinal cord was affected. A woman could not even move her head again.

— Cynthia Okeke (Awka)

We were lucky to survive

The whole scenario did not look like an ideal situation. You cannot call that a test. The organisation was poor. We were lucky to come out alive. The stampede would not have happened if the immigration authority did not order more than 20,000 candidates to move at the same time to the stadium.

— Yetunde Samson (Ibadan)

Applicant, soldier fought

The tension was so high that at a point, an argument between a female applicant and a male soldier degenerated to a physical combat. The fight was stopped by NIS officials who managed to get themselves in between the two fighters.  The test started by 6 p.m. after some people had gone home.

- Victor Nwafor (Umuahia)

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