By GBENGA OLARINOYE

OSOGBO — Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in Osun State, at the weekend, raised alarm over the politicization of the sharing of jobs by the National Directorate of Employment, NDE, on the Subsidy Re-Investment Programme (SURE-P) scheme designed to empower youths and address unemployment.

The chairman of the party in the state, Elder Adelowo Adebiyi, in a statement made available to newsmen in Osogbo, said “reliable information available to us in the state suggests that the Federal Government Scheme has been politicized and restricted to the Peoples Democratic Party supporters and members in utter disregard for other Nigerians who do not support the party.”

Elder Adebiyi said that “we are reliably informed that the current allocation of 3,000 beneficiaries to Osun State, have been distributed to the PDP secretariats across the local government areas, for sharing among its members.

He said as far as the ACN is concerned, the arrangement was a gross misuse of a Federal institution for political patronage, and the abuse of federal power against Nigerians who subscribe to different political parties other than the PDP.

“The SURE-P scheme, it should be pointed out, is designed for all Nigerians and NOT exclusively for supporters of the PDP, and if proceeds from fuel price increase saved to help the jobless is to be distributed nationwide by a federal institution like the National Directorate of Employment, it should benefit all Nigerians regardless of their political inclinations,” he stressed.

He added that “for NDE in Osun State to hand over the 3,000 allocations meant for the state to the PDP is irresponsible, illegal and at variance with the constitutional responsibility of the Federal Government to be there for all Nigerians and not supporters of the ruling party alone.”

He said: “It is not clear if this is a direct order from the Minister of Finance or his Labour and Productivity counterpart or both; or whether it is a conspiracy between the NDE and PDP in Osun State to corner the SURE-P allocation meant for Osun citizens, and give it exclusively to members of the PDP.”

He declared that the ACN in the state totally rejects the action and calls on the Federal Government to compel  the NDE to do its job fairly and equitably to cover all Osun citizens no matter what political party they are affiliated with.