Euclidmyke Agunwa
HUNDREDS of aggrieved Nigeria youths, dressed in black uniform under the aegis of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) and Paths of Peace Initiative yesterday, barricaded the entrance to the National Assembly, protesting the scrapping of the SURE – P programme which provided food on their table during the past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The youths accused the Buhari administration of being insensitive to their plight, alleging that over 51,000 Nigerians who were recruited from the 36 States of the Federation including the Federal Capital Territory by the last administration had been deceived and abandoned by the present administration despite all their campaign promises.
The group accused Federal Government of infringement on their rights as they were legitimately engaged by the Presidency and trained to contribute their quota in various areas, adding that since government is a continuity, the best the present administration could do was to absolve them in other areas where their services may be of immense benefit to the country.
The group lamented that top officials in Jonathan’s administration extorted the sum of N4.29 billion as logistics from unsuspecting applicants only to discover it was a scam three years after.
The group said, “we are protesting violation and abuse of fundamental human rights of 51,000 Nigerians who were recruited from the 36 States of the Federation including Abuja.
“These innocent Nigerians were tricked into this job without any feeling that it could be anorganised fraud considering the high calibre of the people involved in the scam”, they maintained.
“Their names and positions have been uncovered and forwarded to the appropriate authorities, because these officials extorted the sum of N4,029,000,000.00, that was said to have been for employment form, I. D. Card, medical test and training kits,” they lamented.
The spokes man for the protester, Moses Garba appealed to the National Assembly to intervene by making sure that they were paid their entitlements, and reinstated having been trained as paramilitary officers.
“We were trained as Task Force officers with mandate to enforce recovery of federal government properties, right of way, setbacks eradication and traffic control, monitoring and evaluation. So, we want Senate’s intervention for our payment and reinstatement,” he said.
Meanwhile, a security operative attached to the National Assembly who pleaded anonymity was seen attending to protesters, assuring them of Senate President’s concerns for their plight.
As at the time of their protest, no member of the Senate or the House of Representatives went to address them because plenary was still on-going in both chambers.
However, combined armed security operatives did not allow the protesters to gain entrance to the internal premises of the federal legislative complex, even though they were peaceful in their procession as their entrance could be an embarrassment to President Buhari and visiting President Zuma who were to address a joint sitting of the National Assembly later in the day.