Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said that there was no discrimination in the various requirements of the corporation’s recruitment process.

Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division disclosed this on Monday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.

The National Association of Nigerian Students had in a statement on Sunday rejected the requirements for recruitment by the NNPC alleging it was anti-poor and anti-masses.

The association further gave the corporation a 72-hour ultimatum to withdraw all alleged anti-poor and anti-masses conditions in the criteria.

Also, an Abuja-based lawyer, Mr Pelumi Olajengbesi, had threatened to draw the attention of the management of the NNPC to what he described as “discriminatory” recruitment process.

Ughamadu said, “No, there was no discrimination in the criteria, If there is anything, the corporation is supposed to be commended now that it is trying to recruit to reduce the unemployment in the country.

“Our criteria were carefully thought out. We carried out a survey to arrive at all those criteria that were stipulated,’’ he said.

According to him, the corporation over the years has sustained the standard.

He added that the recruitment criteria were of four categories which every interested Nigeria should explore.

“There are many categories, there are four, if you didn’t meet one category, you move to the next, if you didn’t meet the second, you go to the third and so on.

“For the graduate trainee, we put age level at 28 years, the second 34, the third 37 and the last 40. So, any Nigerian looking for employment that falls within any of the four categories is qualified,’’ he added.

He said that it was unfortunate that some people after attempting and were not successful alleged discriminatory in its selection process.

The corporation opened a recruitment portal from March 13 to March 26 and has started short-listing qualified candidates.

(NAN)

– Apr. 1, 2019 @ 05:10 GMT |