Cross River Assembly suspends recruitment of 300 forest rangers over alleged bias

The Cross River State House of Assembly on Thursday suspended the recruitment of over 300 rangers into its forestry commission due to the lopsided nature of the exercise.

The rangers were expected to police the state’s forest reserves against illegal logging, poaching, and other criminal activities.

The decision followed the adoption of a motion of public importance presented by the lawmaker representing Etung State Constituency, Mr. Kingsley Isong, at the plenary in Calabar.

He alleged that the exercise was marred by inequality.

Isong said: “It would be recalled that earlier, the Cross River Forestry Commission had concluded a recruitment of over 300 rangers to protect the state’s forest following the dearth of staff in the commission.

“The recruitment was marred by inequality and unfair representation.

“The list of over 350 hires was not distributed equally among the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.

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“The Forestry Commission has derailed from the due process and adherence to the extant rules of recruitment into the civil service by considering what should be for everybody, only for their friends and family members.”

The lawmakers demanded the appearance of the Chairman of the State Forestry Commission, Dr. George Oben-Etchi, before the House special committee to answer questions on the conduct of the exercise.

The House unanimously agreed that every indigene of the state should have an equal opportunity to apply for jobs.

It inaugurated an eight-man committee to look into the commission’s operations.

The committee headed by a member representing Odukpani Constituency, Mr. Francis Bassey, is expected to investigate the allegations that some local government areas in the state were favoured more than the others in the exercise.

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