••• Banks extorts “shortlisted” candidates
••• More LGAs complain of influx of strangers on their lists
There is crisis warming up in the Osun state political space with current plan of the Federal government to recruitment 774,000 Nigerians, 1000 per local government. As the case may be, the recruitment exercise was supposed to happen through the National Directorate of Employment working closely with committee that each state government had nominated for the exercise which in the case of Osun it’s the Osun Job Centre to be coordinated by the state Commissioner for Human Resources, Alhaja Latifat Giwa.
From the norm in Nigeria, when a benefit like these are thrown at the masses, it is expected that the first set of people that enjoy or benefit from it are member of the ruling party or at best people loyal to the ruling party which in this case it’s the All Progressive Congress (APC).
It would be recalled that the crisis on this project started from the floor of the National Assembly when Festus Keyamo and lawmakers had heated argument in the full beam of the cameras during a hearing. The crisis was a public display of the internal wrangling and supremacy battle ongoing between the Minister and the National Directorate of Employment. The NASS Members went ahead to suspend the programme pending when information about it will be made available.
To find a solution to the crisis, the Minister bowed to pressure and changed his stand. To grease the egos of the Lawmaker, each senator was given 100 slots in each of the LG in his district while a member of the House of Representatives got 80 slots. Each minister is reportedly given 100 slots in each of the LG in his/her states.
It was gathered immediately the process was initiated, some people within the party rolled out a form in the name of “Special Public Works”, source which remained unknown but the form had no numbers which made it difficult for them to coordinate the gathering.
Few days later, another form came out which is now numbered and appears to be more genuine than the initial one which was released and circulated within the party
Recall that a list a later went viral which was supposed to be full list of the 30,000 names that had gotten the job from Osun state and was said to have been released by the state government. This followed with some names being pasted at Local Government Secretariats round the state and bank officials reportedly going to the secretariat to start account opening and verifications before it turned out that majority of the names that came out on the list were not be people who had filled the form showing that the list may have been manipulated.
READ ALSO:774 SPW: Tension in Osun LG over influx of strangers; Youth may storm LG on Monday
It was gathered that the Osun Job Centre maintained that the list which is in circulation is not genuine and did not come from them stating that collation is still going on.
As at now Leaders of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State are currently engaging in war of words as their nominations into the project could not make it to the list. Many of them who have ears of the governor have concluded arrangements to meet with him immediately he returnd from Abuja.
Sources revealed that the Commissioner for Human Resources, Alhaja Latifat Giwa had resigned her membership of the committee as she confessed that pressure on her is very enormous and she can’t handle it.
A politician in Orolu local government, who is very close to the state secretariat of the APC lamented bitterly on the 200 slots given to his local government. He asked why members of the party in government will not benefit from the project.
“What sort of nonsense arrangements is this? How would they take 800 slots from Orolu’s slots? And we want to win elections here. This is totally unacceptable and our leaders must do something about it.” He lamented.
Also some powerful persons in Oyetola’s cabinet are still looking for a clear image of what happened as their slots were not shortlisted. Some are also grumbling over alleged 3000 slots given to the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola who they said has not been to the state for several months.
After a report on Irepodun local government, residents of more council have called to report happenings in their domain as well. They said their list has also been populated by between 60-80% strangers.
Among the LG that their residents have spoken are Orolu, Osogbo, Olorunda, Ejigbo, Ayedire and Iwo local government. They are calling on the Minister to either suspend the programme pending when it will be organized or find solutions to the problems observed across the state.
It was gathered that some of the faces met in Orolu on Wednesday and Thursday are not from Osun State. Some are from as far as Kwara state.
Meanwhile, in what appears to be a twist of fate, some officials of commercial banks who have been approved to be the bankers of the candidates are said to have started extorting them.
It was gathered that part of the agreement reached with Festus Keyamo is that the banks would do a data capturing for the successful candidates at each local government secretariats at no cost.
Related story: OPINION: Is Osun Investment in Health Sector Under Oyetola Yielding Results? By Jare Tiamiyu
However, sources revealed that bank officials have refused to go to secretariats and are now calling candidates to meet them at a designated area where money ranging from N100 to N500 are collected before capturing is done.
A close source to the committee confirmed the development to our correspondent but noted that the committee is already looking at the matter, stating that solutions will be found.
A committee source also told us that the programme is laced with confusion from the federal government. He said the Minister and the NDE has not been on the same page and that no clear cut on how the programme would be.
“Imagine out of 1000 slots in each LG, about 500 have been shared in Abuja and those are the people brought to the local government. Many of the beneficiaries of the slots would just pick anybody and insert their names in whatever local government they want. This is where the problem comes from.” He said.
