The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has attributed the delay in the planned recruitment of 774,000 workers to the coronavirus pandemic.
He explained that the exercise would have commenced but for the lockdown occasioned by the disease.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had last week ordered the recruitment of the workers from the 774 Local Government Areas of the country.
They are to engage in sweeping of streets, markets and clearing of gutters for a period of three months.
The initiative will be funded from the N60bn COVID-19 Intervention Fund and will last from October to December 2020, according to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
Giving an update on the recruitment at the press briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 in Abuja on Tuesday, Aregbesola said the exercise had to be suspended when the pandemic broke out.
He said that the staff to conduct the recruitment have been forced to stay at home, stressing that no one could carry out such assignment at this critical time
“Our youths should be calm, believing that the President’s order on the recruitment will be obeyed as soon as the lockdown over COVID-19 is over,” he said.
