By Peter Okutu
ABAKALIKI — Ebonyi State House of Assembly has made it clear that 70% of  names published on Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, website as indigenes of the state in the last recruitment exercise of the commission were false, urging the state government to reject the list completely.

In a motion, the member representing Afikpo North West constituency, Sylvester Omeri, stated that from the list published on FRSC’s website, over 70% of the names purported to be Ebonyi indigenes had been verified to be non-Ebonyi people.

According to him, Ebonyi State has suffered lots of setbacks owing to near absence of personnel in the officers’ cadre of FRSC.

He pointed out that the quota given to Ebonyi State was nothing compared to the quota allotted to states such as Anambra, Imo, Osun, Rivers, Ogun, Plateau and Benue states, noting that it had been established that Ebonyi State was grossly under-represented in various establishments across the country.

According to him, on November 20, 2010, shortly before the FRSC examination began, the zonal commander of the commission from Enugu stormed the examination hall at Okpaugwu to intimidate, harass and disqualified earlier cleared Ebonyi indigenes from taking the examination, thereby creating opportunity for his kin to pick Ebonyi State slots.

Also, the initiator of the motion for the rejection of the list and member who representing Ezza South state constituency, Emmanuel Aleke, emphasized the need for recruitment exercises in the country to always reflect the Federal Character principle.

He said:   “The principle is to ensure equity, justice and fairness in such organization as the Nigeria Army, Police, Immigration, Prisons and FRSC. The purported list of Ebonyi indigenes does not represent the interest of Ebonyi generally.

“ It is common knowledge that certain privileged individuals in position of authority have played key roles in trying to subvert and sabotage this constitutional laid down principle for their own parochial and selfish interest, thereby thwarting attempts to correct the imbalance by replacing  names of qualified Ebonyi people with those from other states.”

All the lawmakers in the House implored the state government to ensure that any recruitment by all federal agencies and parastatals across the country complied with section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution and that a fresh interview was conducted for Ebonyi indigenes.

In a single voice, having put the motion for the suspension of the list for Ebonyi state indigenes to vote, the State House of Assembly suspended it forthwith.