NIS, NPS: 370,000 Applicants Jostle for 7,000 Openings, -Abbe

Major-General Godwin Abbe (Rtd), Minister of Interior, has announced that over 370,000 applicants turned up for just 7,000 vacancies while 43 others died nationwide during the recently concluded the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) recruitment exercises.

Abbe, who made the shocking disclosure at a ministerial press briefing in Abuja, said "we have set up a powerful investigative committee that will go round and give us the factual and truth of all that had happened during the recruitment exercises", adding "the deaths were caused by desperation of the unemployed Nigerians and it is enough sign that the rate of unemployment in the country is quite high".

On the persistent restiveness in the Niger Delta region for which Nigeria sought the assistance of the British government, Abbe said "the Nigerian government did not fail in its responsibility to provide internal security in the country. Rather, the British government offered to give superior facilities to Nigeria that will assist the country to fight the militants".

"This clearly demonstrate that Nigeria is interested in getting technical aid and superior facilities from foreign countries that will help the country to improve its internal security", the minister said.