Kwara State chapter of ACN on Tuesday described as "discriminatory, condemnable and lawless" the purported distribution of the state civil service jobs to PDP members by Senator Bukola Saraki.

The party was reacting to a news report in the state-owned daily, The Herald, published on Monday under the title 'Saraki empowers PDP members.'

The state ACN chairman, Kayode Olawepo, said in a statement issued in Ilorin that the report showed that the jobs so distributed to PDP members were civil service placements, even when Kwara State Civil Service Commission never advertised any vacancies to allow for equal competition by all qualified Kwarans.

Olawepo said civil service jobs are for all Kwarans to be competed for, and are not to be shared in the bedroom of any political godfather including Saraki.

The statement read: "We read with alarm in Monday's Herald, January 28, 2013, a story titled 'Saraki empowers PDP members.' The story narrated how Senator Bukola Saraki gave out 30 employment letters to PDP members from Alanamu Ward of Ilorin West Local Government of Kwara State. Those jobs, as quotes from one of the beneficiaries revealed, are in the Kwara State Civil Service, which, incidentally, has been shedding jobs, especially at the local council level, for controversial reasons.

"What alarmed us is the level of arbitrariness and abuse of office which this employment offers codify. We therefore wish to say the following questions: "When did Senator Saraki become the Civil Service Commission which has the statutory powers and prerogative of employing 'qualified' people into the service?

"It is public knowledge that public notice, test and interviews normally precede employment into the civil service. The state civil service has not at any time in the past two years advertised job openings. So what process threw up these 30 'lucky winners' of the civil service jobs that Saraki just gave out? And if 30 placements were given to a single council, probability is high that the PDP leadership is holding similar secret employment into the service across the state.

"This behaviour by Saraki is discriminatory, condemnable and lawless, as it shuts the door against other qualified and jobless Kwara youths with no political affiliations. It offers the Kwara public an early insight into an era of increased arbitrariness, deprivation and lawlessness that awaits the state if placed at the control of the 'new PDP godfather!'

"We demand immediate revocation of such employment offers by the Kwara State Civil Service Commission because they violate due process and public decency. What is more, it is a spite on other qualified Kwarans who could have benefitted were these jobs advertised to the public."

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