Fayemi sacks 2,000 teachers employed by Fayose saying due process was not followed in their recruitment

EKITI State's Governor Kayode Fayemi has sacked 568 primary and secondary school teachers of the 2,000 employed by his predecessor Ayo Fayose after the July 14 2018 gubernatorial elections.

 

Laying them off as part of a move to reverse some of the policies enacted by Governor Fayose, the sacked teachers are seen as political appointees. Ekiti State held its gubernatorial elections in July but between then and when he left office on October 16, Governor Fayose employed 2,000 teachers.

 

Earlier this week, the teachers staged a peaceful protest to decision, hoping to get Governor Fayemi to rescind his decision. They stormed the Teaching Service Commission located within the state secretariat complex at about 8.30am, where they displayed their letters of appointments to convince the government that they were legitimate workers.

 

Ekiti State information commissioner Muyiwa Olumilua, said the government’s intention is to sack the 2,000 workers and others whose appointments contravened the law. Olawole Ganiyu, a spokesman for the dismissed civil servants, said, however, that contrary to the pronouncement made by the state government, they were employed legally and that their appointments were in line with civil service rules.

 

He added: “During the Fayose-led government, we were at home when vacancies were advertised. We paid N1,000 to buy forms, we wrote examinations and sat for interview and the scores of the examinations were pasted at the Teaching Service Commission (TSC).

 

“Later, qualified people sat for interview and letters of appointments and posting were given to those that were successful. What was in our letters was that, we are to work for three months before getting salaries but we have not been paid a dime since eight months ago.

 

“Government must be passionate as we were born and brought up here in Ekiti. Most of us have relocated to our schools and worked hard and some of us even resigned from our previous places of work to take up these appointments.”

 

Another of the sacked workers, Akande Adekunle, added that since September 28, 2018, they were offered employment without any pay. He said: “We went through due process, which was legitimate and we have to clarify that we were not sponsored by politicians.

 

"We have no godfathers and government should be a continuum. Why are we being treated this way? It was shocking that they said we didn’t pass through due process."

 

Comrade Joshua Kolapo, the chairman of the Ekiti State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress and his counterpart in Trade Union Congress, Comrade Sola Adigun, begged the government to rescind the decision and re-absorb the workers. However, Governor Fayemi’s chief press secretary, Yinka Oyebode, said the governor did not sack anyone, adding that no one cannot sack people not duly employed in the first place.

 

He added: “The recruitments were obviously mischievous because it neither followed due process nor was ever completed. The affected persons were not duly captured in the Civil Service Structure.

 

"Apart from a letter of employment, they do not exist in the State Civil Service Nominal Roll. They were never captured in the state’s biometric payment system and never received any salary since the purported appointments.”

Share