Oyo Hospitals Mgt Board recruitment: Applicants allege jettisoning of merit list, say, ‘it’s sabotage against Makinde’

Image caption: Governor Seyi Makinde

Oyo Hospitals Mgt Board recruitment: Applicants allege jettisoning of merit list, say, ‘it’s sabotage against Makinde’

Khalid ABRAHAM

“I have been searching for job since l finished school to no avail and so felt on top of the world when news filtered in that workers would be recruited by the Oyo state Hospitals Management Board. This is my chance. I began to prepare, l dusted my books to study hard for the qualifying tests. I was motivated by the knowledge that the recruitment would be merit-based in view of past recruitment exercises under His Excellency Engr. Seyi Makinde,” a distraught lady who applied for job as pharmacy technician however speaking under conditions of anonymity told ogbomosoinsightonline.com.

However, her hopes are disintegrating before her very eyes as the turn of events in the ongoing exercise by the Oyo state government has shown. “it has been hijacked,” she laments.

According to her and some other pharmacy technician applicants spoken to by ogbomosoinsightonline.com, 101 of them sat for the CBT to qualify them for the next stage. “35 of them scored above the pass mark put at 60, by the committee,” an uncle to one of the applicants who also pleaded anonymity said. “They sat for the oral interview but to our shock only one of the 35, who was number 34 on the merit list was shortlisted. The remaining 34 candidates were jettisoned.”

It was alleged that those who did not sit for the test or those who scored below the cut off mark of 60 were the ones shortlisted. “Politicians have hijacked the process,” it was suggested.

Many observed it’s a sabotage of Governor Makinde’s good intention while noting however that it’s a “dangerous phenomenon when something like that happens in the health sector, a field that deals with human life.”

The angry applicants and their people thus want the governor to intervene and probe the allegations for a redress.

“We appeal to His Excellency to intervene by ordering a thorough investigation into the matter. It’s a serious sabotage against his administration. Our efforts and sweat must not be allowed to go to waste,” one of the applicants submitted.

“Many of us traveled from across local governments, risked our lives to sit for the test only to be subjected to this kind of treatment. If they wanted to distribute letters to their party members they needn’t ask people to apply and write qualifying tests. Why making us commit resources in the first instance when this was the plan from the beginning. This should not be allowed to stand.”

Ogbomoso Insight recalls that a similar scenario unfolded during the recruitment exercise into the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) in 2020/2021 when some 24 successful candidates were denied appointment letters. Up till today despite all efforts the anomaly was yet to be corrected.