Job seekers protest ‘dumping’ of applications - I protest for them too jare...its frustrating to graduate,apply for years and still be jobless...entrepreneurship is the way,maybe government should assist graduates with funds to start business if there is no job opportunity for them..abi how you see am?...

Young Nigerians seeking  employment to the Immigration, Prisons, and Civil Defence Corps on Tuesday protested against the  alleged “dumping” of their applications at the Ministry of Interior, Abuja.

The applicants, mainly university graduates, blocked the entrance to the ministry’s building and prevented visitors and officials from entering or leaving the premises.

Their action prompted the security personnel guarding the old secretariat in Area One where the ministry is located to fire some shots into the air to scare the angry youths away.

The applicants, our correspondent gathered, began to protest when they realised that their applications addressed to the ministry were dumped by the drainage in front of the building.

Job seekers had been submitting applications in the ministry since last September, when it was gathered that the Federal Government was recruiting personnel into the Nigeria Prisons Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Federal Fire Service.

Though a notice on a wall said submission of application closed on October 23, 2012, a quick check on the dumped applications, indicated that some were submitted on October 16.

A lady applicant, Joy Usman, described the action of the officials as provocative and disrespectful to “graduates, who, she said, suffered so much to graduate.

The Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Interior, Mr. Rotimi Akinyemi, could not be reached for comments, but another official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, insisted that the applications were thrown out because they were not submitted within the stipulated time.