Job racketeering rocks federal fire service

Fire service men on duty

Many candidates purportedly recruited into the Federal Fire Service have alleged that the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board substituted their names with those of other persons after appointment.

The candidates, who claimed that they were offered probational appointments after applying for the job through the CDCFIB portal between November and December 2024, said they were denied documentation when they went for the exercise in April.

But the Controller General of the Federal Fire Service, Abdulganiyu Jaji, dismissed the allegation, asking those who feel unjustly denied to come forward with their letters.

Some of the candidates said FFS officers told them that their Trade Skill Numbers had been allocated to other people.

According to the candidates, the officers told them that the letters of documentation sent to each of them were no longer valid.

A letter of invitation for documentation to one of the candidates from the CDCFIB was sighted by our correspondent on Saturday.

The letter was signed by the Secretary of the board, Maj. Gen. Abdulmalik Jibrin (retd.).

It read, “Subsequent to your application for recruitment into the Federal Fire Service, and your participation in all our assessment and verification exercises, the board is pleased to inform you that you have been considered for probational appointment, subject to a few conditions which include participation in a medical examination that will be conducted by the medical personnel of the service.

“You are slated to appear before our team as scheduled: 10 a.m., Monday, March 24, 2025, at Metropolitan Fire Station, FCT Command, Kubwa, Abuja. Please note that the entirety of the recruitment process does not at any point attract any form of remittance.”

However, the candidates said their appointments for documentation were changed twice by the board.