Ahamefula Ogbu
6 August 2008
Port Harcourt — Rivers State government has vowed to enforce its law on the employment of indigenes, saying it will prosecute companies that flout the legislation.
Handing down the warning yesterday in a press conference to announce the employment generation summit which holds tomorrow, Commissioner for Empowerment and Employment generation, Mr. Emma Chinda, said most companies which had entered into talks with him on the matter had pleaded for more time to study the provisions.
"To a very large extent, the laws have been flouted and the state is interested in prosecuting defaulters if we draw their attention to it and they continue to flout it. Some of them are claiming that they need more schooling on it for total compliance,"he said.
Chinda however said the companies ought to go beyond the provision of low cadre jobs by giving opportunities to qualified indigenes for management positions ,stressing that it was through such positions that implementation of the employment law would be easier.
He explained that the problem driving businesses from the region was based on lack of means of livelihood since more than 60 percent of the people in the State lack means of existence.
According to him, the summit would articulate immediate implementation, strategies that would either provide employment of make the people self employed as militancy would be stamped out if the people are empowered.
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