TELL Magazine

New blood is soon to be injected into the Edo State civil service with the plan by the governor, Governor, Godwin Obaseki, to recruit 725 new professionals into it.

Disclosing this on Sunday at the 2020 Alaghodaro/Inauguration thanksgiving service held at the New Festival Hall, Government House, Benin City, Obaseki said he would in his second term, focus on strengthening the civil service, which is the engine room of government. He said advertisement for the new positions would soon be published for interested persons to apply.

“About 725 vacancies have been declared. Within a month, the recruitment of a new generation of professionals would commence in earnest. By early next year, we would have completed the process.

“We would commence intensive training early next year for 30 to 45 days, by which time most vacancies will have been filled in the public service. After this, we will announce political appointments and get political actors to join us to begin to work on our manifesto to fulfill our promises to Edo people,” the governor stated.

Obaseki thanked God for a peaceful and successful election and inauguration, saying that he had started work immediately to ensure that the people of Edo State enjoyed the dividends of democracy.

“Work starts on Monday. We have announced the appointment of Secretary to the State Government. We are expanding the transition team and they have 60 days added to the initial timeline to complete all aspects of their work.”

On security, Obaseki said he would be summoning meetings with traditional leaders, leaders of churches, and other community leaders in the state, adding that “Together, we will design a new security scheme. We can’t wait for one central policing system to take care of the policing needs of Edo people.

“We have already graduated the first batch of 877 of the 2000 community constables that have been trained by the Nigeria Police Force. They would be deployed to various communities to work with local community arrangements to ensure effective coordination and keep criminals out of the state.”

The governor also said the government had acquired about 25 hectares of land to build its own state correctional facility “so that the whole Justice train is complete.”