…says scheme is an “absolute” scam
The Rivers State Government has withdrawn its participation in the Federal Government’s 774,000 jobs scheme which is structured to employ 1000 youths from the 774 local governments across the country.
The state’s representative in the committee, Erastus Awortu made this known in a letter addressed to the Minster of State for Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo, SAN.
His grouse was that the All Progressive Party (APC) members in the state had appropriated the process and made it a purely party initiative primed to favour only APC members in the state.
He described the programme as a scam.
He said: “At the beginning, some guidelines were set on how the slots should be shared among the various interest groups. The various interest groups are 35 and have representatives in the committee but unfortunately, that is not being done by the Committee. The guidelines are not being followed.
“The Committee has been asking people to process their applications, but we found out that they also gave out forms to APC members in the state, which means they already know those they will shortlist for the programme and they are only stressing other people to apply. They are doing that to justify that due process is being followed but that is not the case.
“I find it very misleading and as the representative of the Governor, I will not be part of that kind of process where the populace will be made to apply for what is not available.
“It is an absolute scam.
“Accordingly, I want to say that since the slots are not defined as per the guidelines that the state is willing to allow the programme be run fully as an APC empowerment programme for their members and cease to be part of it forthwith.”
