Stampedes during a recruitment process by the Nigerian immigration service killed at least 30 job seekers and injured scores more as unemployed youths rushed at locked gates, witnesses said on Monday. Recruitment drives by state agencies attract thousands of young university and college graduates in Nigeria, many of whom have been unemployed for years and see a government job as the only sure way to guarantee their future. Witnesses said there were stampedes at recruitment centres in the 36 state capitals on Saturday. Some also died during an endurance test that required applicants to run 2-3 km in sweltering rainy season heat to determine their fitness. “When we got to the gate, it was locked so we began to force it open ... There was a rush and a stampede as a result of which about nine people died,” Obinna Agwu, an applicant in southeast Enugu state, told Reuters. Five applicants died in neighbouring Anambra state, and seven in Abia, while nine others died in northwestern Kaduna state, witnesses said. Local media reports said four died in Asaba, capital of the southern state of Delta. The immigration service was seeking to recruit just over a thousand people but more than 100,000 applicants turned up for the process, media reports said.
