By Austin Ogwuda
ASABA—Protests have trailed  the recent recruitment of workers, conducted by the State Civil Service Commission, just as one of the civil servants was arrested in Asaba, yesterday, Delta State, for issuing out fake letters of appointment after collection of bribe.

The arrested civil servant (names withheld) is presently being interrogated at the Police ‘A’ Division Asaba Divisional Police Station.

Investigation showed that the suspect had allegedly duped several applicants, who were eager for the employment during the recently conducted recruitment exercise.

Nemesis, however, caught up with him when an applicant, who paid him N180,000 in order  to secure appointment confronted him for a refund since her name was not listed among the successful applicants, which was  published by the Commission, recently.

It was gathered that in order to save himself from the embarrassment, he issued out a letter of appointment to the lady applicant, which was discovered to be forged. He was said to have similarly issued forged employment letters to other desperate applicants.

State Police command’s spokesman, Mr. Charles Muka confirmed the story.  Meanwhile, many applicants who fared well by scoring high percentage marks both in the written examination and oral interview conducted by the Commission but were eventually dropped have accused the Commission of double standard.

State Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr Mike Okeme,  had sometimes in July this year,  led a delegation of the Council to the office of the State Civil Service Commission in charge of the recruitment, calling for transparency and application of due process.

Okeme had told the Commission led by Dr. Emmanuel Tetsola, that they should remain firm, follow due process and merit, which they have been found to be adopting and not to be intimidated by any body.

He pointed out that it was labour that convinced the Governor to raise the number to be recruited from the initial 200 to 1,000 and wondered why some highly placed public functionaries would be angling to have a lion share of the job opportunities.

According to him, “I want to say that this recruitment does not have sacred cows you base your judgment on merit”.

Competitive recruitment examination for entry into Delta State Civil Service was held  on  the 8th of May this year.