Hospital authorities at the Rivers State Government-owned Braithwaite Memorial Hospital in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, have confirmed that four candidates died during a stampede at the Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that more than 20,000 candidates were involved in a stampede at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, venue of the exercise on Saturday morning.
A competent source at the hospital told NAN that 12 candidates were brought to the hospital after the stampede.
“I can confirm to you that four have died, four others in critical condition while four were treated and discharged,” the source said.
The source, who pleaded for anonymity, said a pregnant woman was among the dead.
The source said doctors and specialists have been called back to duty to assist to save the lives of the remaining four candidates on emergency list.
“Some of the candidates were in bad condition because they were trampled upon during the stampede,” the source said.
At the Military Hospital, Port Harcourt, authorities confirmed receiving some of the injured persons but said they were being taken care of.
Abang Bisong, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Rivers State Command, confirmed to NAN that some of the injured were taken to the hospital but did not know their condition.
Bisong said: “During the stampede, some candidates fell and were trampled upon by others, while some became unconscious due to the incident.
“The victims have been taken to the Military Hospital for rehabilitation and treatment.
“At the moment, we have not received any information on their present condition.”
Bisong, a Superintendent of Immigration, said that NIS had advertised positions for university graduates, diploma holders and Senior Secondary School Certificate holders.
An eyewitness and victim, Jasper Saturday, corroborated Bisong’s account but commended security agents in the manner they handled the crowd.
Saturday, who claimed to have lost his original certificates, said that gunshots released by security agents to disperse the crowd averted “a tragedy which could have occurred”.
He said: “The immigration officers were trying to screen candidates from the stadium gate and in the process some candidates became impatient and started pushing us from the back.
“Those of us who were in the front fell to the ground because others stepped on us and as a result, some candidates lost consciousness.
“If not for the gunshots released to the air by security agents to scare the candidates pushing us from behind, there would have been several casualties.”
However, in Imo State, Governor Rochas Okorocha assured the job seekers that he would ensure that they were not shortchanged in the recruitment.
Okorocha gave the assurance in Owerri on Saturday at the Dan Anyiam Stadium where thousands of applicants gathered for the aptitude test for employment into the NIS.
He said he would ensure that the employment quota for Imo State was filled by indigenes of the state.
The governor said that not all the applicants would be successful and advised them to also apply for jobs in the “Imo Youths Must Work programme” of the state government.
NAN reports that no fewer than 10 applicants, including three expectant mothers, fainted while waiting for the commencement of the test.
Some of the applicants expressed disappointment over the manner the exercise was organised.
An applicant, Nwakuche Isigu, said he left his village in Oguta Local Government Area by 6am to ensure that he arrived early at the venue.
Another applicant, Onyemobi Anyanwu, called on the Federal Government to create more jobs for the youth.
In Kebbi, 5,000 applicants assembled at Halliru Abdu Stadium, where officials had tough time controlling the applicants.
The venue witnessed a boom in economic activities as food and snacks vendors as well as sachet water sellers enjoyed good patronage.
The police, Federal Road Safety Cops and National Security and Civil Defence Corps personnel assisted in the maintenance of order at the venue.
Three persons out of the 11,000 candidates who turned up at Women Day Secondary School Minna for examination into Nigeria immigration service were yesterday fear dead as security agencies fired tear-gas at anxious applicants.
From Minna in Niger state comes the report that three persons gave up their ghost during the stampede for the NIS examination.
Security sources told our Correspondent that NIS personnel were overwhelmed by the crowd that lined up to 2 kilometres from the venue of the examination, adjacent the Federal Secretariat, Minna.
When The Eagle Online visited the Minna General Hospital where the victims were rushed to, one of the victims was in a critical condition even as the hospital management said that based on security instructions they would not allow anybody to go near where the victims were admitted.
When contacted, the Comptroller of Immigration Service, Niger State Command, Ezekiel S. Kaura, confirmed that 11,000 candidates sat for the recruitment examination in the Minna centre and that five candidates to the best of his knowledge collapsed as a result of the stamped and were rushed to the hospital.
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