Several candidates who claimed to have been recruited into the Federal Fire Service have accused the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board of replacing their names with others after offering them appointment letters.
The aggrieved individuals, who said they applied for the FFS jobs through the CDCFIB portal between November and December 2024, stated that they were turned away during the documentation exercise in April.
However, the Controller General of the FFS, Abdulganiyu Jaji, refuted the claims, urging any individual who believes they were unjustly denied documentation to present their letters for verification.
According to some of the affected candidates, they were informed by officers at the documentation venue that their Trade Skill Numbers had already been assigned to different people.
They also revealed that officials told them that the documentation letters sent to them were now invalid.
A letter of invitation for documentation issued to one of the candidates, and signed by the Secretary of the Board, Maj. Gen. Abdulmalik Jibrin (retd.), was seen by our correspondent on Saturday.
The letter 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.”
Despite having this letter, some candidates said that the board altered their documentation appointments twice.
A message purportedly sent by CDCFIB on March 23 informed them of a rescheduling, “Please be informed that the previously announced documentation date has been rescheduled to April 7th, 2025. This change is due to the Board’s decision to adjust certain administrative procedures and ensure a smooth process, considering the upcoming holidays. Please note the venue: Metropolitan Fire Station, FCT Command, Kubwa, Abuja. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding,” the message read.
Another message dispatched on April 9 further shifted the exercise, “Kindly be informed that you are to present yourself for documentation on 17th April, 2025. Please note the venue: Metropolitan Fire Station, FCT Command, Kubwa, Abuja…”
However, when the candidates showed up on the new date, they claimed they were denied entry into the premises, despite having received both SMS and email confirmations along with their formal invitations.
One of the candidates, who asked not to be named, recounted her ordeal to The PUNCH on Sunday, explaining that her TSN had been reassigned to someone else who had already been documented and employed.
She said, “I applied for the FFS job in November 2024 via the portal. I didn’t go through anybody. All the processes were done on the FFS portal. In March 2025, I got my letter of invitation for documentation with a probational offer of appointment. I was asked to go to the FCT Command of the FFS for documentation on the 24th of March.
“I was already in Abuja when they sent another message that they had rescheduled our documentation date to April 7th, 2025. I had to travel back to my state. Afterwards, we got another message that our documentation had been postponed to 17th of April. I had to wait in Abuja because of the cost of transportation and every other thing.
“I went to the venue of the documentation on the date I was asked to appear. The security guard at the gate asked to see my letter of invitation, and he sent me back after I showed it to him. After a while, I went back to the security again and started mounting pressure on him.”
She added, “Later, somebody at that place took me inside the building. He asked where I got the letter and I told him I applied for the job via the FFS portal. He said the letter was fake. I asked what he meant by that — how could the letter be fake when I had been getting messages from the CDCFIB?
“While that was going on, another officer asked me to go upstairs, and then he checked my letter and name on the system. To my surprise, someone was already using my TSN. I was confused. He had to show me one master list and said someone’s name was already allocated to the TSN, and that the person had documented and finished training.”
Another candidate shared a similar experience, saying he was barred from accessing the documentation venue despite presenting his invitation letter.
The candidate recounted that an FFS officer at the gate told him his letter was invalid because it was signed by an “unauthorised” person, even though the signature belonged to the Secretary to the Board.
He said, “I applied for the job on the FFS portal and after a while, I received a message from the CDCFIB on both email and SMS, informing me of my documentation schedule. After two postponements, I went to the FFS Command on Wednesday (April 23) but I was denied entry when I got there.
“After a while, I was directed to one officer who checked my letter. He laughed after checking it and declared, ‘This letter is not valid again.’ He emphasised that the letter was no longer valid, because the person who signed it (Maj. Gen. Abdulmalik Jibrin (retd.)) was not the right person to sign the letter.
“He brought out a ‘master list’ after that and I saw that the TSN on my letter had been allocated to another person. He asked me to go back to my sponsor, saying I might likely get help and be considered. Many of us are affected in this situation.”
In response to the allegations, the CG of the FFS, Abdulganiyu Jaji, expressed concerns about rising incidents of job racketeering, involving fraudulent agents who exploit desperate job seekers with fake letters of appointment and documentation.
Jaji stressed that the Service did not authorise any external parties to handle recruitment, maintaining that all procedures were conducted transparently through officially recognised government platforms.
He disclosed that upon uncovering numerous fake letters, the agency discreetly suspended the documentation process without any public announcement.
“To our surprise, the fraudsters, completely unaware of our move, went ahead and printed even more fake letters. We could only watch and laugh, knowing they had already exposed themselves.
“Henceforth, anyone caught presenting forged documents in a bid to secure employment will face immediate arrest and prosecution,” the CG said.
“On behalf of the Board, I challenge anyone in possession of a genuine appointment letter who claims to have been unjustly denied the opportunity to come forward with it.”
He also assured that authentic job opportunities within the Service would always be publicised through credible and verifiable channels.
