About 56,000 persons have applied to fill 1,000 job vacancies at the Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (CRSPHDA).

The Director-General of the agency, Beta Edu, told journalists on Tuesday in Calabar that the agency announced 1,000 vacancies through its portal but has received over 56,000 applications.

The ongoing recruitment was announced last year for nine cadres of health officers. These include Community Extension Workers (1&2), Medical Doctors, Optometrists, Nurses, Midwives, Ward Orderlies, Environmental Health Workers, Pharmacists and Laboratory Technicians.

The CRSPHDA boss said the exercise was aimed at staffing existing primary healthcare centres in the state and providing enough manpower for the new centres established under the Governor Ben Ayade administration.

She added that, last week, the applicants had their certificates and licences screening and the successful candidates were shortlisted for a written interview which commenced Monday.

While assuring that the exercise will move soon to the shortlisting of successful candidates for oral interview, she said the state government was committed to improving healthcare service delivery in the state.

Mrs Edu complained that she had received more than 4,000 appeals from different people to influence the selection of their candidates but said the governor gave her strict directives that the recruitment should be on merit.

She assured that the lives of Cross Riverians would not be put at risk by employing unqualified personnel.

“What if the person you are pleading for, that is not qualified is employed and posted to your village? Imagine the number of persons she will kill if given the job?”