Claim:
A Hausa news blog, Alfijir News, claims that the Federal Government has announced that all CDCFIB applicants will be converted to military personnel.”
Full Text
Amidst insecurity concerns in Nigeria, given the recent kidnappings and terrorist attacks, a Hausa blog, Alfijir News, published on Facebook, stated that the federal government had announced that applicants for the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB) recruitment would be converted to military personnel.
The CDCFIB began the recruitment of new personnel to strengthen its operations earlier this year.
The post by Alfijir News was published in Hausa with the image of Nigeria’s new Chief of Army Staff, Major General Waidi Shaibu. The caption is translated to English thus: “Tirashi: 100 soldiers that we employed for work last year don’t know where they are.
“Lit General Waidi Shaibu said that if Nigerian youths refuse to join the military, we will make it mandatory for all Nigerians, from 18 years and above. The 10,000 people we employed last year have no idea where they are.”
The Facebook post as of 6 pm on Saturday, November 22, had attracted over 5,000 likes, 202 shares and over 2,000 comments. The news has also been shared on other social media platforms like Instagram and messaging platforms like WhatsApp.
Given the virality and sensitivity of the claim and the tension around insecurity in Nigeria, we conducted this fact-check.
Verification
We visited the official website of the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB) and recruitment portal. While the recruitment portal only shows that the CBT exercise for applicants has closed, the CDCFIB site contains a public disclaimer telling applicants to disregard messages from unknown parties and to rely only on authentic communications from the Board.
None of the two sites mentioned any mass “conversion” of applicants into the armed forces.
Screenshot of the CDCFIB website
Screenshot of the CDCFIB recruitment portal
CDCFIB Debunks the Rumour
The CDCFIB on its X (formerly Twitter) account posted a disclaimer on its timeline around 5 pm on November 22, tagging the claim as FAKE.
Screenshot of the disclaimer from CDCFIB’s account on X
Conclusion
The claim circulating on social media that the Federal Government has announced the conversion of CDCFIB applicants into military personnel is FALSE.
The claim is not supported by any official announcement from the government, the Ministry of Interior, the Nigerian Armed Forces, or the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB).
The CDCFIB explicitly debunked the rumour on its X (formerly Twitter) account.
