5th August, 2015
Mr Christian Ita, the Chief Press Secretary and Special Assistant to Cross River Governor, said over 6,000 applicants applied for positions in Calabar Garment Factory and the state’s Green Police.
Ita disclosed this in a statement issued in Calabar on Wednesday and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria.
According to him, most of the applicants are youths and widows of the state origin.
He said it was in line with Gov. Ben Ayade’s promise to create employment opportunities for the people.
“Since the job vacancies for the two projects were advertised a few days ago, over 6,000 applicants have so far submitted their resume to the office of Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and Forestry Commission.”
He said, “this is in line with Gov. Ayade’s promise during his inaugural speech on May 29th, 2015, to rekindle hope by breaking the vicious cycle of employment.”
The CPS stated that the garment factory and the Green Police were two of several projects designed to create over a thousand jobs for the teeming unemployed population to mark the governor’s first 100 days in office.
“Ahead of its commissioning in a couple of weeks, the garment factory is expected to absorb hundreds of women, mostly widows while the Green Police will employ about a thousand youths, ‘’ he said.
He said the Green Police was a non-arm bearing organisation established to protect the state’s vast forest reserve and the environment in general.
Ita said the governor, while conceiving the two projects, saw them as a more institutionalised way of empowering the people, rather than giving them handouts as empowerment which was basically unsustainable.