Sunday Ani
Aggrieved youths of Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Enugu State, have petitioned the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to urgently address the hijacking of job slots meant for the youths of the local government by applicants from other regions in the ongoing Special Public Work programme by the Federal Government.
They alleged that hundreds of applicants published on the list for the local government were not from the area, and urged the NDE to investigate the job fraud, so as to expunge those fictitious names without delay.
In a petition by their lawyer, Chris Osoh, on behalf of the Concerned Uzo-Uwani Youth Movement (CUYM), led by Comrade Idiga Cletus Chizoba, the group claimed that jobless youths of Uzo-Uwani were being shortchanged by the committee entrusted with the exercise, under the leadership of a former gubernatorial candidate in the State. The group urged the NDE to, as a matter of equity, justice and fair-play, fish out all the fake names on the local government’s list and replaces them with the real natives of the area.
The youths also called on the NDE and the Federal Government through the Minister of State for Labour and Productivity to set up a panel of inquiry to investigate the glaring fraud by some stakeholders that handled the exercise and bring them to book as a deterrent to others. They maintained that thorough investigation of such fraud was necessary in order to restore public confidence in the anti-corruption agenda of the present administration.
“We are optimistic that you will use your good offices to restore joy to the hearts of those who were denied the opportunity to participate in this programme by directing the appropriate authorities to effect the required change,” the group pleaded.
The group further appealed to other youths of Uzo-Uwani, whose slots were hijacked, to remain calm and peaceful in their agitation for an urgent reversal of the injustice.