Verification exercise: Oshiomhole sacks 836 teachers

By The Citizen

The Adams Oshiomhole- led government of Edo State government has sacked 836 teachers following a verification exercise carried out by the state's Department of Information and Communication Technology.

The affected teachers were said to have learnt of their lay-off when they discovered that their names were missing from the December salary voucher.

Those sacked were said to have either over-stayed their number of years in service or falsified their age and credentials. Others were those who have become mentally unstable and the blind.

The Commissioner for Basic Education, Patrick Aguinede, who confirmed the retrenchment, said those affected were de-certified by the ICT after the screening.

He said, 'Those that have over-stayed in service gave a scenario that the state government could not recruit new teachers.

'The teachers were found to have stayed above 35 years. Some were physically blind; some manipulated their results and age, which later showed they finished school before they were born.'

The Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Teachers in Edo, Akin Adeojo, said the union was aware of the sack as a rumour, but that the affected teachers had not been issued letters that they had been sacked.

Adeojo said some of the teachers were found to have stayed above 35 years in service and others physically and mentally-challenged.

He said the NUT would scrutinise the letters before taking a decision and that anybody found victimised would be resisted.