Over 30,000 job seekers have applied to benefit from the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) Community Services, Youths and Women Employment Scheme in Ekiti State, Chairman of the State Implimentation Committee (SIC), Rt. Hon. Femi Akinyemi has said.
In a release issued today, Akinyemi said the first 3,000 to be recruited from the applicants will be made public before the end of this month, adding that; “They will receive their first salary in February.”
He debunked insinuation that forms were only given to members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state; saying; “we distributed the forms free to beneficiaries in palaces of traditional rulers in the State to show that the programme is meant for everyone, irrespective of political affiliation.
“Or would the Obas have allowed their palaces to be used for a programme that is partisan?
“Also, the State Director, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Dr Abimbola Oni is the Vice Chairman of the Implementation Committee and that should be enough to show that the programme is not for members of any political party.
“Therefore, those insinuating that the programme was for members of a particular political party were only playing dirty politics, aimed at denying Ekiti youths the opportunity of benefiting from the well-thought-out programme of the President Goodluck Jonathan led Federal Government but they won’t succeed.”
He said himself and the three senatorial coordinators of the programme, Mrs. Tosin Aluko (Central), Hon. Kayode Ogunsakin (South) and Hon. Dare Olaosebikan (North) and the State Director of NDE, Dr Abimbola Oni personally monitored the forms distribution to ensure that it got to everyone.
Akinyemi, who disclosed that Ekiti State, like other States in the country was allocated 15,000 beneficiaries in the Community Services, Youths and Women Employment Scheme, noted that 3,000 beneficiaries are to be recruited this month, while another 2,000 will be recruited in February.
His words; “What we saw at the Oba palaces in the headquarters of all the 16 Local Councils in the State where the forms were distributed last week further reinforced the importance of this scheme and we are sure that by the time 15,000 youths are employed, crime rate in Ekiti will be reduced and problems of unemployment solved considerably.”
He however noted that the scheme was not a free free wheel programme, adding that beneficiaries would offer community services on the basis of which they would be remunerated.
