Less than 22-days to the governorship election and after about four years of suspension of 2015 recruitment exercise by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, over alleged irregularities, the Delta state government has set up new strategies to ensure the governor’s return to office.

Recall that the former state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan had at the twilight of his administration, recruited nearly 3,000 Deltans into the state workforce but Governor Ifeanyi Okowa halted the exercise shortly after he was sworn into office, thereby throwing then into the Labour market..

The state government on Friday, February 08, 2019 set a 9-man Committee to re-examine the 2015 recruitment exercise.

A statement signed by the Head of Service, Reginald Bayoko mni reads as follows:

“It is hereby announced for the information of the general public particularly Deltans that in fulfillment of his earlier promise to revisit the 2015 recruitment exercise which was suspended due to alleged irregularities, His Excellency, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State, has approved the commencement of a screening exercise to review the suspended recruitment with a view to lifting the suspension. The screening exercise which is to be handled by a 9-man Committee is expected to be concluded within three weeks.

“The action of the government was in deference to public concerns regarding the fate of candidates who might have genuine cases, the continuous exit of staff in the civil service due to retirement and the apparent incremental improvement in the state economy.

“Considering the fact that, the allegation of widespread irregularities in the 2015 recruitment exercise have not been fully debunked, there is therefore the need to screen the affected candidates who participated in the exercise to establish those with genuine cases and ascertain the areas of personnel shortfall, so that those found worthy could be re-absorbed and personnel gap in the civil service bridged.

The Committee has the following terms of reference:

    i.            to determine the number/nomenclature of advertised posts that were filled;

  ii.            to screen the candidates, specifying those considered eligible and those not eligible for each of the advertised posts;

iii.            to ascertain the number and geographical spread of applicants/candidates involved in the exercise according to their respective local government areas and the genuineness of their certificates/credentials and their local government of origin;

iv.            to make appropriate recommendations to government on the number of candidates and categories to be absorbed from those found eligible

  v.            to recommend measures to avoid future occurrence of irregularities in the recruitment process.