However, almost 90 per cent of those on the merit list ended up being disappointed as the Nigeria Customs Service announced names of people with seeming nepotism.
Some applicants for the Nigeria Customs Service recruitment exercise for 2019 have accused the agency of deliberately refusing to give them the job despite passing all tests conducted by the government institution.
The aggrieved individuals in a statement on Monday revealed that despite publishing their names as successful candidates in national newspapers earlier this year, the NCS left them out to admit others whose names were not listed originally.
Describing the act as "wickedness and nepotism", members of this group say they risked their lives to travel to different parts of the country to participate in the recruitment exercise and therefore should not be treated unfairly.
The statement partly reads, "The Nigeria Customs Service has once again thrown many Nigerians into a state of quagmire by deceit and false hope.
"Many Nigerian youths’ lives were put at risk as a result of what was tagged "2019 NCS shortlisted merit list screening" which was conducted in different zonal areas of the six geo-political zones in the country between March 1 and 10, 2021 respectively.
"The screening process was commendable as the applicants performed brilliantly.
"However, almost 90 per cent of those on the merit list ended up being disappointed as the Nigeria Customs Service announced names of people with seeming nepotism."
Following the development, the aggrieved applicants are calling on the National Assembly and relevant government institutions to intervene in the matter to ensure that they were not unjustly schemed out of the recruitment exercise, which they had already been listed as successful.
"We the unselected merited applicants want to know why the Nigeria Customs Service did not finally shortlist the 3,200 names enshrined in the agency's 2019 and 2020 budgets approved by the National Assembly.
The statement added, "We would also like to know why the federal character principle was abjectly neglected in the final recruitment list.
"We want to know why it took three years to round off a recruitment that was budgeted for 3,200 applicants only for 1,545 persons to be shortlisted.
"We want to also know the basis through which applicants who had been listed as successful candidates in national newspapers were eventually dropped.
"We also like to know why the agency announced a "supplementary recruitment" which is purported to commence from December 13--24th, 2021 when they had released a supplementary list in July 2021 on the same 2019 recruitment process.
"If this manipulation of people's rights is not looked into, it may push some applicants into depression and cause other health problems.
"We are therefore calling on the government and all relevant authorities to look into this matter to ensure justice prevails."
In January 2020, the NCS shortlisted 162,399 candidates for its written test as part of the recruitment exercise which began in 2019.
Those selected for the test were picked from the about 828,333 candidates that applied for the exercise.