The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State has raised concern over the composition of a committee set up to recruit 10,00 youths by Federal Government in each local government in the state.
Some APC chieftains, in a petition, addressed to the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, and made available to newsmen on Sunday in Enugu, said that the state government had hijacked the process.
A copy of the petition, which was sent to the National Assembly, was signed by Chief Ben Ezeamuna and Chief Tobi Odinwankpa from Udi and Ezeagu Local Government areas of the state, respectively.
They alleged that the leadership and membership of the committee for Enugu State were mostly loyalists and members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), while members of APC were excluded.
The petition read in part: “As the ruling party in Nigeria, we were perplexed to see that members of our party are conspicuously missing.
“The list contains only PDP loyalists and members apart from few inclusions outside party lines.
“It is a worrisome development as our party is marginalised and this is an embarrassing development that has plagued APC development in the state,” it read.
The party said that such type of neglect of party members had dwarfed the progress of the party in the state.
The APC chieftains sought for the intervention and directive of the minister to review the membership of the committee and for a member of their party to be at the head.
Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Labour, Mr Uchechukwu Ogbonna, said he was not aware of the identity of members of the recruitment committee.
Ogbonna said that no memo was sent to him from any quarter, adding that he would seek information about the scheme from the relevant quarters.
The Federal Government had initiated a scheme to gainfully engage 10, 000 youths in each local government area in the country. The Federal Government also announced that a selection committee would be put in place to drive the recruitment.
