Sixty thousand job seekers who were shortlisted for the teaching work in the new Model Primary and Secondary Schools in Rivers State; have called on Gov. Chibuike Amaechi to come to their aid over sundry charges imposed on them.
A cross section of the applicants who spoke to our correspondent in Port Harcourt said as unemployed people, they are finding it difficult to meet up with the charges. Mr. Vincent Ikeagwu who lamented that he commutes from Akabuka town in Ogba/ Egbema/ Ndoni local council to Port Harcourt, appealed to Amaechi to reduce the charges levied on the poor applicants.
The state Ministry of Education had last month advertised vacancies for 10,000 qualified persons, irrespective of their state of origin, for the teaching job.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that the N60, 000 applicants are required to procure a scratch card at N1, 200 at any branch of the Zenith bank in Port Harcourt. Sources hint that the cyber cafes in the city charge between N1, 500 and N2, 000 to process the forms.
The applicants have cried to Amaechi, appealing to him to call the ministry officials to order. Ameachi should direct the people in charge of the employment to reduce the charges. We are suffering, one of the applicants who gave her name as Mercy said.
Amaechi had in a radio programme last week, stated that he did not order the Ministry of Education to collect any levy from the job seekers before employment would be given.
The state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has decried the situation describing it as rip off. The party in a statement endorsed by its publicity secretary, Jerry Needam, said the forced demend of N1, 200 from the 60,000 shortlisted job seekers amounts to robbing Peter to pay Paul.
ACN said the applicants have been subjected to nervous tension in banks; stressing thatit is the worst form of extortion to levy unemployed persons.
We view the over one hundred million (N100,000,000) naira that will accrue from the sales of the N1200 scratch card to the 60,000 applicants as vexatious, ridiculous, and insensitive to the plight of these poor applicants. It is a calculated attempt to deny the children of poor parents the job opportunity, the party said.
The party further described the scenario in Rivers State as similar to the job scam under the ousted regime of Governor Ikedi Ohakim of the Peoples Democratic Party in Imo State, which rather than reduce the high rate of unemployment, increased their woes after making payments to the bank, the same thing Rivers State Government is currently doing.
The party charged Amaechi to make public why they are collecting money and subjecting the hapless job seekers to inhuman treatment as well as publish the beneficiaries of the money.
It is regrettable that the Rivers State Government does not feel the hardship these future leaders go through to look for money to pay and queue for several hours in the bank to purchase these scratch cards,†the party posited.