"Information reaching the forum has it that the 1,000 slots have already been shared amongst top politicians, and some cronies of the governor from a particular LGA have highjacked a major percentage of the slots which is making it difficult for qualified graduates that participated in the exercise to be employed."
Graduates from Bayelsa State have cried out over the alleged hijack of the state government's recruitment exercise of 1,000 unemployed youth into the civil service.
The graduates claim that politicians have truncated the process and shared the slots among themselves.
Under the leadership of the Bayelsa State Graduates Forum (BSGF), the graduates expressed dissatisfaction with the ongoing 1,000 civil service recruitment exercise embarked upon by the state government.
A statement made available to newsmen in Bayelsa, through the Secretary of the Forum, Domor Mienye, referred to the exercise as a "sham".
Noting that there was evidence of faulty handling of the recruitment process, Mienye said: "The process which started in June 2018 should have been completed by now, but the fate of applicants is hanging by a thread.
"We are disappointed by the way and manner the exams were conducted. In this age and time where recruitment processes are completely automated, the Bayelsa State Civil Service Commission is subjecting our people to a rigorous, yet ineffective, semi-automated process, where scores for computer-based tests were not published because of their ulterior motive.
"Information reaching the forum has it that the 1,000 slots have already been shared amongst top politicians, and some cronies of the Governor from a particular LGA have highjacked a major percentage of the slots, which is making it difficult for qualified graduates that participated in the exercise to be employed.
"We are using this medium to notify the public what the Dr Peter Singabele-led commission is doing, which poses grave danger if not averted immediately, and we are appealing to the Restoration Governor to call the commission to order as his reputation and integrity will be harmed by this unholy act if not stopped. In a nutshell, what we are saying is we expect a recruitment process that is free, fair, and credible. No local government area is superior to the others. Hence, we expect the slots to be spread across the various LGAs using the metrics."
The graduates also urged the commission to do the needful and publish the names within two weeks, "after which the forum will have no choice but to mobilise its members to make a peaceful protest".