Edo gives jobs to 30 corps members, splashes cash gifts

Edo State Government yesterday gave automatic appointment in the state public service to four Youth Corps members who won the State Government award for distinguishing themselves in service while it also offered to employ twenty six others through the state Information and Communications Technology (ICT) department.

The State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who disclosed this during the passing-out ceremony of three thousand and six Batch "B" Corps members deployed in the State also announced a cash gift of N25,000 per corps member who did their primary assignments in the state public schools.

He said the gesture was in appreciation of their contribution to the development of the state and by extension the nation.

Oshiomhole said: "having worked so hard, I am happy that the NYSC recognizes that beyond sermonizing, one of the things we can do to encourage outstanding performance is to publicly acknowledge those who have distinguished themselves.

"Moments ago I have had the honour of presenting certificates of merit as well as small cash gifts to those of your colleagues  who performed in an outstanding manner. In addition to this certificate of merit and the cash, I am so impressed by the narrative of the State Coordinator that Edo State Government should go beyond the cash and certificate.

"Therefore, I will like to offer to those of you who wish to accept, that those who benefited from this merit award that we will offer them automatic employment in our public service and we will ensure that the terms are competitive such that you will want to stay and settle in Edo," he noted.

According to the Governor, "In addition to that, you are aware that in Edo State we have what we call Edo Youth Employment Scheme called Edo YES and we have a robust ICT unit where we are training graduates and even non-graduates including those with knowledge of computer science.

"We want to offer through your Coordinator, twenty six openings. I invite you to nominate twenty six, thirteen males and thirteen females, we will offer them employment in addition to the four.  We will ask them to join our ICT team, we will give them job training, we will give them the requisite training and exposure and they will be able to add value to the development of our great state," the governor added,

Comrade Oshiomhole remarked that, "as leaders, we must by our actions demonstrate that we are all one and the same. It is the elite who are bereft of ideas who play up ethnic, regional and other primordial sentiments. We in Edo state have gone beyond those. The task we have is to make everyone who lives in this state feel at home."

He however noted that, "by offering employment to about thirty of you, I believe we have made a practical statement that we believe you are indeed not settlers in Edo state, you are part and parcel of Edo Community. I have asked the Coordinator to forward to us the names and account numbers of those posted to schools, the schools they were posted to, the local government, so that we can credit their accounts with the sum of N25, 000 each."

The Edo state Coordinator of National Youth Service Corp,   Mr. Adebayo Somefun who congratulated   the batch B Corps members  disclosed that  twenty Corps members  will be punished, of these, fourteen will repeat their service while six will have their service extended. He said the fourteen who are to repeat will do so for absconding from service. Two of those who have their service extended are being punished for engaging in a public brawl during the passing-out parade.