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| - A website allegedly from the National Population Commission (NPC) is circulating on social media with a claim that the commission is receiving applications for ad-hoc recruitment exercise.
The post, which was retrieved from a closed WhatsApp group, includes a web link purported to be the official recruitment portal launched by the commission and also listed the requirements for the recruitment exercise.
READ: Viral free flight tickets’ offers from airlines are phishing scams
The post read:
NATIONAL POPULATION CENSUS 2025 AD-HOC STAFF RECRUITMENT-2025
Are You Skilled,Courageous,and principled? Nigeria Needs You.
Application Portal is now Open
Apply And Also Share To Others there might Be Someone Who Needs This Opportunity
Click the link below to apply now.
Apply herehttps://qpetition.org/NPC-Ad-Hoc-Staff-Recruitment.html
The National Population Commission (NPC) is the principal demographic government agency in Nigeria responsible for generating data about the country’s population.
The commission had previously revealed plans to conduct a fresh national population census in 2023. However, the population census didn’t hold and was initially rescheduled till after the general elections but still didn’t hold. A new date is yet to be communicated to the general public.
CLAIM
The National Population Commission (NPC) is receiving applications for ad-hoc recruitment.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the viral post in circulation is FALSE.
A careful look at the message shows that it lacked correct punctuation while some words were misspelled. A look at the website link also shows that the domain name has features synonymous with most phishing websites which The FactCheckHub had reported in the past.
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A click on the link, archived here, redirects intending applicants to web pages requesting their details such as name, email address, phone number, state of origin and reasons to be considered to apply.
When the details were inputted and instructions were followed, it asked our fact-checker to share till the “green bar is full,” a prompt often synonymous with most phishing websites that we have debunked previously as they harvest people’s details to carry out phishing attacks.
Further checks show that the commission had dissociated itself from a similar phishing link as reported by The Punch while stating that a new date for the population census is yet to be fixed.
“The attention of the commission was drawn to a fake website created by some mischief makers concerning the purported recruitment for the 2025 Population and Housing Census to defraud unsuspecting citizens.
The commission wishes to inform the public that it is not undergoing any census Ad-hoc Staff recruitment exercise at the moment as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR has not issued a proclamation date for the conduct of the next Population and Housing Census,” the statement read in part.
Over time, The FactCheckHub has debunked several of such claims hiding under the guise of recruitment, support fund, empowerment programme, a government activity or free internet data. Recall that our fact-checkers had previously debunked similar NPC recruitment exercises in 2023 and 2022. You can read both here and here.
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These claims usually follow a similar modus operandi by targeting areas that would be of interest to a lot of people.
You can also read The FactCheckHub’s article on how to fact-check viral posts shared via WhatsApp to learn more.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the National Population Commission (NPC) is receiving applications for ad-hoc recruitment is FALSE; checks show that it is a phishing website meant to harvest individuals’ data possibly for fraudulent purposes.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].
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