The Defence Headquarters has raised the alarm over fake Facebook accounts opened by unknown individuals for the purpose of defrauding applicants.
Blogging on its official Twitter page on Thursday, it warned the public to ignore the Facebook pages said to have been opened in the name of the Director of Information, Gen. Chris Olukolade.
Operators of the accounts, it said, promised to help their targets secure jobs in the Nigerian Armed Forces for a fee.
The tweets warned that the armed forces had not changed their laid-down recruitment procedures, and that those relating with the fraudulent Facebook users had themselves to blame should they fall into their trap.
It tweeted, “Several Facebook accounts have been opened in Olukolade’s name claiming that he is ready to assist people with recruitment into the army and other services at a fee.
“These Facebook accounts are scam, which should be disregarded and not patronised by candidates who wish to apply into the military.
“The only way to be recruited into any of the services is to follow the process spelt out in the advertisements placed by the services.”
The armed forces – comprising the Nigerian Air Force, the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Army – had before now been at ‘war’ with scammers over recruitment.
Few weeks ago, a Facebook account claiming to be operated by NAF ran an announcement where it called on those who applied for “the 2015 recruitment” process of the force to reach listed mobile phone lines in order to have their names shortlisted.
Operators of the account also claimed that those who obtained application forms through them had “100 per cent guarantee” of being shortlisted for training.
But NAF denounced the Facebook page and other similar ones, saying they had nothing to do with the force.
In a press statement, the Director of Air Force Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Dele Alonge, said the group was merely taking an advantage of NAF online recruitment.
“It is therefore imperative to state in clear terms that NAF does not own the Facebookaccount or any other one. The public is hereby advised not to have any dealing with the accounts linked to NAF,” the statement said.
The Nigerian Navy, on its part, has had a fair share of the nuisance that accompanies online employment processing. It had earlier launched an e-recruitment portal –joinnigeriannavy.com – which could only be accessed by a N1,000 e-voucher.
The fee it imposed stirred a controversy, both online and offline, with some people alleging that it contravened a Federal Government’s directive to the effect that no job seeker should be charged for application handling.
Director of Information of the navy, Commodore Kabiru Aliyu, had put up a defence, saying there was nothing secret about the process.
While the navy carried on with the online recruitment, it had to contend with the activities of impostors who had also gone online to make sundry demands on unwary applicants.
Platforms, such as Nigerianjobvacancyform.blogspot.com, have continued to advertise online recruitment forms just as the application process had been closed.
On Facebook, especially, there are dozens of platforms where phony application forms are advertised, operators of the channels claim they are acting on behalf of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
For instance, a group that goes with the name – the Nigerian Army Recruitment Application Forms – announces sale of forms almost every month. Attached to the announcements are telephone lines, which are hardly active.
Social media users believe the Force could trace those feasting on their digital employment processes if they truly wanted to.
Reacting to tweets by the Defence Headquarters on Thursday, Chris Ochiagha challenged the armed forces to fish out and bring the scammers before justice instead of making what he called unnecessary noise about them .
