A total of 1,911,141 Nigerians submitted applications for the 2025 recruitment exercise conducted by the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB), as the portal officially closed on Monday, August 11.
The exercise, which attracted significant national attention, was affected by multiple technical challenges.
Applicants faced repeated crashes of the application portal, forcing the board to temporarily suspend the process at several points.
Initially scheduled to commence on June 26, the recruitment was first delayed to July 14, then later pushed to July 21.
To accommodate the disruptions, the application deadline, originally set for August 4, was extended by one week.
Despite the setbacks, the final numbers showed an overwhelming response, with over 1.9 million applicants completing the process.
Breakdown of the figures from CDCFIB’s website indicates that Kogi State topped the list with 116,162 applicants, followed by Kaduna (114,536) and Benue (110,565).
These three states, along with Kano and Niger, made up the top five and jointly contributed 510,174 applications.
On the other end of the spectrum, the states with the fewest number of applicants included Bayelsa (11,669), Lagos (14,216), Rivers (22,210), Ebonyi (23,601), and Delta (27,962) — totaling 99,658.
Following the closure of the application portal, the board issued updates via its official X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday. It confirmed the end of the application phase and gave insight into what candidates should expect next.
“Recruitment Applications Closed! The official recruitment portal for the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board is now closed. We thank all applicants for their interest and commitment to serving with honour, integrity, and national pride.”
In the follow-up post, the board assured that qualified applicants would be notified shortly.
“Next Step! Shortlisted candidates will be contacted shortly with further instructions. Please monitor your email and text messages over the coming weeks for notifications. We also encourage you to regularly check the portal and social media handles for important updates.”
Applicants are advised to keep an eye on their email, SMS, and the official CDCFIB website and social media platforms for further announcements as the recruitment process advances.
