News: SURE-P Extorts N7.3bn From Job Seekers

The Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), introduced by the Federal Government to reduce the effect of the 2012 petrol price hike, have succeeded in reducing the suffering of some unemployed youths, but that is not without some costs as about 183,000 job seekers are compelled to cough a total sum of N7.3 billion as application fees.

Each of the 36 states was given 5,000 job vacancy-slots to fill, while Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory was allotted 3,000 positions.

West Africa BusinessNews learnt from some of the applicants, in Lagos, that the fee covers charges, including N20, 000 for uniform; N10, 000, processing fee and N700 for affidavit, Also to be paid for is "Blue Tag", which will make it eligible for a successful applicant to collect "Yellow Tag" after being short-listed for the job, it costs N200 each. An Abuja source said those who applied earlier were told to pay N1,500 for identity card, which other states were collecting.

"But our major problem is that some of us that have even paid for uniforms have not been issued any," said the Abuja job seekers.

A graduate-applicant, who said he had already submitted his form for a technical job recruitment, told our correspondent that he had to convince his parents to source the money with which to return his form, copy of which he made available to West Africa BusinessNews. "My initial worry was getting someone to sign as my guarantor, only to find out that I needed to pay the said amount, which was not receipted. All of that I have done hoping to be called for posting after all," he stated.

He said the SUREP/FERMA Federal Task Force officials would- not receive any filled form or short list an applicant for any job without the pre-payment.

But when contacted, the SURE/P Lagos State's Director of Administration, Mrs. Remilekun Adeniji, denied having any knowledge of any fee being collected from the applicants. She said the forms were being issued without payment, having an imprint of: Free, not to be sold' on each of them.

When confronted with fact that some charges were demanded for processing of the forms, she added that anybody caught selling the forms should be reported to the authorities of SURE-P/FERMA Federal Task Force. "For uniform, i cannot talk much about it, because the Federal Government did not give us take-off grant. You know we have to wait for the government, things will lag behind. You know government things are not usually fast.

"We are looking at instead of waiting, we will work on the uniform ourselves. But I would be able to tell you now that this is what it will cost," she explained. But she admitted the-issuance of affidavit to applicants in Badagry, saying the officials there did not inform the main office in Lagos before doing so. "When - I saw what they were doing, I had to be reporting at Badagry every day, so that I will let them know that they don't need to go beyond what we are doing here. "So for now, there is nothing like affidavit. If they are going to do any affidavit, it is under their forms, which we will tell them to leave open. When they are finally employed, they will take it to court themselves. So, don't mind them, they are just jumping the gun," she asserted.

On the number of people that have applied for the job, she said because documentation exercise was still ongoing, it would be difficult coming up with a total figure, but added that only 5,000 will be recruited from Lagos. However, it was gathered that despite the money collected from the job seekers and the rigour that some of them have been subjected to since last November, none of them have been paid any allowance.

"The worrisome part of it is that some of these applicants have been undergoing training since November last year and have not been paid a dime,|" the source said.

It was learnt that though SURE-P/FERMA Special Task has stopped receiving applications nationwide, it decided to recruit men who it feel can confront LASMA officials in Lagos, after the officials of both organizations had clashes in May.

Source: WestAfrica BusinessNews