By Emma Una
Cross River State Governor Bassey Otu has ordered the cancellation of thousands of unauthorised appointments into the local government service by the Local Government Service Commission which was sacked earlier in the year.
A statement by the Secretary to State Government, Professor Anthony Owan Eno, on Wednesday evening said the recruitments carried out by the sacked commission were unauthorised, illegal and not in compliance with the state’s civil service rules.
“Following the submission of the Report of the Panel of Inquiry into the Recent Local Government Recruitment Exercise and having carefully considered the issues raised, investigations conducted and recommendations made by the Panel, the Cross River State Government has taken the following decisions: The recruitment carried out by the defunct Local Government Service Commission between 2024/2025 was fundamentally flawed; lacking in legitimacy and fraught with absence of executive approvals, high-scale and widespread job racketeering, commercialisation of employment slots, institutional complicity, ineptitude and breach of public service ethics. The entire exercise therefore in the face of non-transparency, absence of accountability and non-compliance with extant laws and financial regulations, remains invalidated and cancelled,” the statement said.
The governor also said that only 83 personnel initially appointed for the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission, CROSIEC, by the Civil Service Commission and redesignated to the local government service commission will remain on the payroll while others recruited by the sacked local government service commission will be removed from the state’s payroll.
“Meanwhile, government has graciously approved the recruitment of 4,000 personnel through a fresh and transparent recruitment exercise. The new process will deploy digital platforms and modern procedures to determine staffing needs and ensure that recruitment is based on established requirements,” the statement said.
The governor advised those affected by the nullification of the previous recruitment exercise who possess the necessary qualifications to reapply, adding that those who would be eased out of the payroll as a “consequence of the cancellation of the unauthorised recruitment exercise would be paid compensatory benefits”.
“Finally, the Attorney General of the State and relevant law enforcement agencies to immediately commence investigation into circumstances surrounding the ill-fated recruitment exercise and prosecute persons found culpable in accordance with the law,” the statement concluded.
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