The Chairman, Oyo State Road Traffic Management Agency, OYRTMA Dr Akin Fagbemi has assured residents of the state that there will be fairness and equity through out the recruitment process of officers ongoing in the Agency.
Fagbemi gave this assurance on Monday while answering questions during a press conference hinged upon the recruitment of officers which was earlier approved In the 2022 budget by the Oyo state governor Seyi Makinde.
The OYRTMA boss who appreciated the Governor, his excellency Engr. Seyi Makinde for being magnanimous to the agency having seen that there’s a need for more man power for the agency to fulfil its mandate noted that the application form without any cost.
According to him, “Two weeks ago we had a recruitment programme been supported by his excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde. You may recall that several times people have asked that OYRTMA needs more manpower and his excellency approved that and we’ve gone through the process. 14th January 2022, we decided to open the application process through an online portal of the state government and we’ve had a lot of applications ranging from those who are graduate, those who have OND/NCE and also we give opportunity to those with Secondary school certificate and we had a time frame which ended Friday 28th January, 2022 and we’ve had so much applications.
“Let me state here that we appreciate the state government and his excellency Governor Seyi Makinde for being magnanimous to this agency having seen that there’s a need through the demands of the people for more man power and more hands for the agency to fulfil its mandate. OYRTMA basically is to ensure that we work on traffic control within the state, we help to reduce traffic congestion and also rescue operations.
“You should be aware of upsurge in population within the state. There’s a drastic increase within the state and vehicular movement. This is not just because of the good governance of his excellency but also when you have a state where you have a relative security within the state and the economy growing, a lot of people moving here and there, geographically the location of the state has also affected the system. Hence There is a need for us to get more hands. So we started the recruitment and it ended on 28th January 2022.
“Let me say here that we appreciate the teeming youths who have applied. So far we now have thousands of people even though we might not be recruiting that large number because we have limited recruitment approval. For now it is going to be in batches and as time goes on, we will ask for more but for now we have a certain number to recruit.
“Currently a lot has applied and that’s to tell you that we’ve raised the bar of governance through the activities of his excellency. This was an agency where people do not want to be part but under Governor Seyi Makinde, this agency has received a lot of boost, a lot of encouragement, we’ve seen corporate organizations supporting us and we’ve also seen that the government itself has ensured that the officers and men are well taken care of”.
“For those who has applied, I want to thank them and very soon we will move to the phase two of the process. Do not forget that this is a para-military agency that requires some certain parameters and fitnesses that you must go through. There will be physical exercise, medical checkup and all that. Please prepare yourself for that.
“And for those who are complaining about submission, you should know that everything that has a beginning has an end. We want to thank them, we know they are passionate and are willing to work but for now we’ve closed the process and we will continue with the ones we have collected.
For those who could not submit, we plead with you to be patient and we believe that opportunities within the agency will always come. His excellency will always be magnanimous with that. Please do not be agitated, we know you want to serve the state but for now what we can accommodate is what we’re going to do.
“For those who have submitted, I promise we will pick the best of the best and we’ll ensure that there’s fairness and equity in the process. We’re not going to be the only one involve in this, we have other sister agencies , ministries within the armbit of the law that brought up the organisation that will be involved in the process.
“For those who have been with us, we call them OYRTMA Mayors, most of them too have applied, we will also give them priority but on condition that within the period of serving voluntarily, you’ve behaved yourself, not found wanting and not found to have any misconduct as it were. These are the criteria we are going to look at.
“We’re dealing with the public and for such we need people who are responsible, hardworking, people who can represent the agency in a way that it won’t bring negative repute and image to the state.
While answering questions on the numbers of officers to be recruited and when the second phase of the recruitment process will start, Dr Akin Fagbemi said that the second phase would start as soon as possible and that all processes should be done within the first quarter of the year. This he said is in regards to the high demands for OYRTMA officers to be on the field.
“It Is going to be soonest. Do not forget that the recruitment process will be para military based because after we have closed the application, the next thing is medical fitness, physical fitness and other processes. We hope to conclude this within this first quarter because there’s a high demand for OYRTMA officers to be on the field.
“And more so looking at the developmental processes from the government. So everything wil be based on demands. The more all these opportunities are coming up the more we will begin to get men to assist base on approval from his excellency but I can really assure you that it is expanding and we would do the needful, Fagbemi said.
He further noted that the numbers the agency intended to recruit cannot be verified now as there are thousands of applications that will be reviewed and that the recruitment process would also determine the numbers to be recruited. However, he gave the breakdown of the percentages that would be recruited based on qualifications.
“For the number of applications, for those that applied online they’re over fifteen thousands but you know it does not end online, you also needs to go through a process, submit a physical acknowledgement page to the agency and we got over two thousand.
“So with regards to recruitment process based on qualifications, it going to be twenty percent graduate, we’re going to have thirty percent with ONDs and NCEs and then we’re now going to have fifty percent with those that are schoo leavers because we really need those who are going to do the job”,he noted.
Also he made it known that priority would be given to volunteers who are also known as OYRTMA Mayors who applied. “You know I told you that it is going to be in phases. Based on our mandate, we have two areas of recruitment, we do have those who are recruited directly who are officers. We also have those who are volunteers and for the volunteers we call them Mayors. These are people who have what they are doing but also want to contribute their own quota too.
“But for us that will be paid by government, we’ve segmented it and the reason we do not want to say this is the number of people is this. Number one, it is an elastic organisation where the number of recruitment is based on increase in population. Just like what his excellency has told us, the demands of increase will also affect the recruitment process.
“So what we are doing now is we have a certain percentage that we wants to first inject not only to a particular area, we are also going to base on what we call community traffic management system and under this system, we are going to recruit officers from each community, they will work within that community together with the Mayors. So you now have those Mayors by the side and you know we do have them a lot. So if I should give a particular number, it means we are not going to accommodate the Mayors but I can assure you that we are going to have enough officers that will meet the demands with regards to traffic control. So just expect continuous engagement through engaging volunteers and also based on his excellency approval those who are going to be recruited. So very soon you will get the figure”, Dr Fagbemi assured.
Dr Akin Fagbemi thus thanked everyone who has and is still contributing to the cause of the agency and “we promise to improve in areas we’ve been lacking”.
