Over 20,000 applicants, on Saturday, defied a downpour and sat quietly at the 13 Amphibious Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Calabar to write the examination to be recruited into the army.
Comprised of young men and women, the teeming crowd sat quietly as rain drops pelted their bodies and soaked them right down to their under garments while horse whip bearing soldiers stood guard.
The youth underwent rigorous screening exercise before being allowed entry into the field at the Brigade headquarters at Akim where they wrote the examination as no hall was big enough to accommodate them.
They first stood in a long queue which stretched two kilometres beginning from the gate of the Brigade through Mary Slessor Avenue to Calabar Road .
Captain Ibrahim Yussuf, the Army Brigade Public Relations Officer, was not present at the examination venue and several calls to his mobile phone were not answered. A source at the venue of the exercise said this year's rigorous screening exercise of the applicants was to safeguard against any breach in security during the exercise.
Source: Vanguard