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Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State yesterday rejected the composition of the state’s selection committee for Federal Government’s Extended Special Public Works Programme (ESPWP) under the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Designed to engage 1,000 youths in each local government area of the country for employment, the APC members have raised the alarm that their members were being excluded from the state committee that would select the 17,000 youths for the programme.
They alleged that members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other unidentified beneficiaries dominated the state’s list.
APC said if composition of the present committee was allowed to stand, its members would be highly discouraged, the party ridiculed and denied of a good standing in the state.
In separate petitions to the Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, its Deputy Governorship Candidate in the 2019 polls who doubles as Deputy Chairman of the party, Gilbert Chukwunta and its Organising Secretary in the South East zone, Timothy Amah, demanded a re-composition of the committee.
“The Enugu committee is headed by an APGA candidate and PDP loyalist, Gbazueagu N. Gbazueagu, who contested the Enugu West Senatorial District under APGA in the 2019 general elections. He is not known in the Enugu APC.
“The list has no known APC member in the state. We have also observed that the other people on the list are PDP youth leaders and members. It contains only few persons outside the party and these include two traditional rulers and one each of NURTW, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) representatives, NDE state coordinator and the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA),” Amah noted.
Chukwunta and Amah charged Ngige to review and approve the nomination of an APC leader to head the committee, to not only help APC youths, but also to strengthen the party at the ward levels.
“APC members should be included in the committee to save our party from being seen as a party in government, but not in power in Enugu State and by extension in the South East.
“Our party should be involved in Federal Government’s programmes in the state so as to market our party for future elections,” he added.
The petitioners asked that APC State Executive, including a man and a woman, should be represented in the composition of the committee’s reviewed list for the state.