Officials of the Rivers State Ministry of Education have come under fire for requesting 3000+ bribe from interested applicants for the Neighbourhood Corps and Safety Agency job before they are issued first school leaving certificates.
The Rivers State Government announced vacancies for young qualified indigenes and non-indigenes into the Neighborhood Watch Corps and Safety Agency, a community-based security outfit set up to checkmate crime within the state.
One of the requirements for the security job is a minimum of First School Leaving Certificate.
However, investigations revealed that officials of the Exams and Records Unit in the Ministry of Education Rivers State Secretariat Complex are charging N3000+ in bribes from candidates struggling to get their certificates.
TPCN investigations revealed that indigenes from certain local governments are forced to cough out up to N5000 before being issued with the necessary certificate.
An inquiry by TPCN into the matter revealed that high-ranking civil servants in the Ministry are behind the heist and is done in a coordinated manner.
Some of the applicants for the security job who spoke to TPCN said that they do not have any choice other than to pay the money.
“There is no job, and if it will take just 3500 for me to get a job, I don’t mind,” one of the applicants said.
Attempts by TPCN to speak to a top personnel in the Ministry was largely unsuccessful as they declined to comment on whether the state government sanctioned the fees being collected by the ministry.
