No fewer than 500 youths from Akamkpa and Akpabuyo Local Government
Areas of Cross River State on Monday protested against alleged marginalization
by Lafarge Holcim Cement Company in contract award and employment.
Youths from the communities hosting the cement company decried the
company’s inability to implement the 80 per cent local content agreement it
entered with the host communities.
NAN reports that Lafarge Holcim is hosted by six communities under
Akamkpa and Akpabuyo LGAs.
They were armed with placards of various inscriptions which read: “Give
us employment and contracts; “We want the position of Human Resource Manager to
come from the host communities’’.
Speaking on behalf of the aggrieved youths, Mr Bassey Effiong, Youth
Leader from Akansoko Community, said that the company’s marginalisation had
rendered many youths in the area jobless.
Effiong said that they had written many letters to the company to
consider them for employment and award of contracts, which he said, yielded no
result.
“We have graduates and technicians who are willing to do this job, but
Lafarge prefers to bring people from outside to work in the company. “We want
the office to be brought back to Calabar from Lagos, and they should stop
giving us excuses that we don’t have the technical know-how to work with them.
“All we are saying is that we need employment and contracts for our
youths. “The company should implement the 80 per cent local content agreement
we entered with it,’’ the youths spokesperson said.
Also, Mr Ojong Etta, Youth Leader from Mbobui Community in Akamkpa LGA,
said that youths were only employed to do `labour jobs’, while the executive
positions were allotted to non-indigenes.“We want the Human Resource Manager of
Lafarge Cement Company to be an indigene of the host communities.“We have been
over marginalized in terms of employment and award of contracts. We need a
change of things in the management of Lafarge Company,’’ he said.
In his remarks, the traditional ruler of Akamkpa, Ntufam Clement
Emayip, said that it was wrong to relocate the company’s head office from
Calabar to Lagos.Emayip urged the company to consider youths from the host
communities for employment and award of contracts.
Addressing newsmen after the protest, Mrs Folashade Ambrose, the Lafarge
Director of Communication and Public Affairs, said that the company appreciated
the existing relationship between the host communities and Lafarge.
“I have heard all their complaints. I will take their messages back to
the management of the company, and we will get back to the host communities
soon,’’ she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment