The Federal Government has been warned against coercing the people of Kwara State to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) using the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) jobs as a bait.

A member of the state House of Assembly, Barrister Kamal Fagbemi (APC, Oke-Ogun) noted that SURE-P jobs are for all Nigerians, irrespective of political affiliations.

Many unemployed youths have been enrolled into the SURE-P scheme, where each beneficiary receives N10, 000 monthly for a specified period.

It would be recalled that SURE-P chairman in the state, Chief Moses Ibiyemi, had allayed the fears of beneficiaries, assuring that none of them would be denied their benefits as a result of political developments in the country.

However, Fagbemi accused the PDP of using SURE-P to coerce people of his constituency into joining the party. 

He said: "A new dimension has set in. They are now threatening SURE-P people. You can’t force people to join you; that Jonathan is the owner of SURE-P. I want to correct the impression; SURE-P belongs to Nigerians, and as Nigerians, we are all entitled to it. We’ve informed our people that they should resist any attempt by anybody to lure them into PDP forcefully under the pretext that they are going to be sacked from the SURE-P.  We’ll do everything humanly possible to resist any attempt by anybody to coerce people to move to PDP”. 

Meanwhile, the SURE-P chairman has attributed the non-payment of three months arrears to its workers in Kwara to presence of ghost participants in the scheme.

Moses Ibiyemi made this clarification in Gbugbu, Edu Local Government Area of the state against the backdrop of concerns raised by the beneficiaries over non-payment of their salaries.

He said the organisation is currently embarking on a computerised screening exercise to ascertain genuine SURE-P workers in the state.