No fewer than 500 youths from Akamkpa and Akpabuyo
Local Government Areas of Cross River on Monday
protested against alleged marginalisation 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 marginalised 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.
