Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State has approved the employment of 3,000 degree, HND and NCE graduates as well as other professionals to be employed into the state civil service.
The Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Goni Fika, disclosed this yesterday after the State Executive Council meeting held at the Government House, Damaturu.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, Fika said the government had also ratified the purchase of essential commodities to be distributed to Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs and other individuals as “Ramadan relief to civil servants”.
According to him, the government usually extends such gestures during Ramadan.
The items, according to Fika, include rice, sugar, vegetable oil, etc, amounting to N96,525,000.
He pointed out that the council also ratified the approval of the payment of cash backing to the Amirul Hajj Committee for 2012 Hajj activities amounting to N102,289,600 to cover allowances and estacode for the team and also to cover the expenses of the Pilgrims’ Commission.
This is in addition to the approval earlier granted for the purchase of 40 units of Messey Farguson 375 tractors and implements to reinvigorate agricultural activities in the state.
The commissioner also disclosed that the Yobe State Agricultural Mechanisation Authority, YOSAMA, currently had only 32 unserviceable tractors which were procured in 2000 but needed to be replaced in order to serve the farmers well.
Fika also disclosed that the council was briefed on the efforts made by the government to absorb 6,672 candidates listed for employment while 8,871 others were being screened to be re-considered for absorption into the local government.
