Pregnant Women, Graduates, Physically Challenged Persons Storm Green Police Recruitment In Cross River.

Pregnant  Women, nursing mothers, physically challenged persons and university graduates were among the nine thousand applicants who ,Saturday morning, thronged the U J Esuene Sports Stadium to compete for one thousand job placements in the green state Police scheduled to oversee the state’s forests.

The applicants who came from the seven local government areas of the Southern Senatorial District of the state comprising Akpabuyto, Bakassi, Akamkpa, Biase, Odukpani, Calabar Municipality and Calabar South were at the stadium as early as 6am to undertake the physical exercise routine of six kilometre walk which started at 7 am before returning to the stadium for screening of documents.

Dressed in all white shorts, t-shirts and canvas, there were bold signs of enthusiasm as they lined up according to their local government councils of origin to under go the screening and documentation processes.

The green police which are to protect the state’s vast forests reserves are part of Senator Ben Ayade’s signature projects to provide one thousand jobs in his first one hundred days in office.
An applicant, Esther Manson Okon from Akamkpa who is five months pregnant said she decided to apply for the job with the expectation that when employed, she could be of help to her husband who is a farmer. “I have three other children and this is the fourth, things have been very hard for me and my husband so when I heard about the green police job, I decided to apply to so that I can help my husband”

She said her pregnancy will not be a barrier to her effective performance if given the opportunity since she is just thirty two years old and still physically active. “My other three children are grown up and so I can do very well because I am just thirty two years old, so am still young to work and help my husband”

Another applicant, a nursing mother, Atim Bassey from Calabar South said her baby is just three months old but she can do better than those who have not given birth. “You can see that I went round the distance that they took us and was not tired but those who have not given birth could not do it so I am strong enough to do the work”

The State Security Adviser, Mr Jude Ngaji told our reporter that the job is for Senior Secondary School Certificate holders and Ordinary National Diploma graduates but many university graduates also applied and assured that they will be committed to do the job if given the opportunity.

He said the exercise for the north and central senatorial districts would soon come up on dates yet to be announced and called on applicants from those districts to wait for the dates for their areas before showing up for the screening.

Mr Ngaji assured that the state Governor, Senator Ben Ayade is committed to the plight of the unemployed and would do everything to ensure that those who will not be successful in the screening exercise are given opportunities in other areas.

The Permanent Secretary Forestry Commission, Dr Mrs Pepetua Adi said she is not surprised by the large turnout of applicants as the number of unemployed youth is high and said one thousand persons would be employed and assured that those from local government areas with forest would be considered more since the job requires those successful to guard the forest.

Source Vanguard.