Oyo sacks 65 ‘YES O’ cadets for extortion

[Mirror]

Sixty-five of the 1,339 "YES O" cadets enlisted about two years ago by the Oyo State Ministry of Environment were yesterday sacked for dereliction of duty and extortion.

The Commissioner for Environment and Habitat, Mr. Lowo Obisesan, said the cadets, who were enlisted on N10, 000 monthly to control traffic, were sacked for alleged dereliction of duty and extortion.

Obesesan the cadets were specifically caught extorting traders and commuters in Ibadan.

Heavy presence of policemen and soldiers were noticed at the entrance of the ministry yesterday afternoon with some of the "YES O" members shut out of the premises.

Speaking on the development, the commissioner said: "When we enlisted these people, we expected they would give the people and government the best, but some of them were doing the job without human face. Some of them were enforcing the law negatively. So, the executive council felt some of the enlisted people were not the right ones to have been engaged.

"Investigation revealed that most of them did not have the prerequisite requirements requested. Many of them do not come to work; they go only when they want to collect bribe from people.

"Without knowing what I had decided, I went out this morning and requested from each of their officers the attendance of the cadets and I found out that many of them were not on duty. Today, many of them were caught and those that did not fall within the standard were told to go away. We will stop their salary and I believe that the department they work for will reject them.

"Of the 1,339 that the government enlisted, surprisingly, we hardly see 300 people. They go to the market women to collect their goods and share. Nearly 50 per cent of them were caught and have been rejected".

National Mirror