Oath Of Secrecy Comes Alive In Fayose’s Ekiti State

SAN FRANCISCO October 06, (THEWILL) – The Ekiti State Government has revived the oath of secrecy to workers in the state public service in an attempt to stem dissemination of wrong and obnoxious information to the public.

Dr. Olugbenga Faseluka, Head of Service, Ekiti state, administered the oath to the workers on Thursday at a two-day workshop organized for workers in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Development.

Faseluka declared that the revival of the oath of secrecy is aimed at returning government workers to the rudiments and foundation of civil service insisting that it is in line with the State Public Service Rules and Regulation.

He added that most of the workers were ignorant of the provisions of the Public Service Rules until the introduction of competitive promotion examination whose syllabus included the knowledge of the Public Service Rules.

He declared that the oath does not contradict the provisions of the Freedom of Information law which grants the public access to government information.

“Ekiti is one of the states in Nigeria to have domesticated the Freedom of Information Law. The essence of that law is to let members of the public have access to the workings of government,” he said.

“What we are doing by reviving the oath of secrecy is to tell people that our service is not an amorphous and rudderless one. When information is given out, there is a channel in the ministry.

“What the civil service does is to mill or process its information. It is only the permanent secretary in the ministry that can authorize the release of information.

“There was an unfortunate incident. A patient disclosed her HIV status to a nurse, then there was a misunderstanding between the patient and the nurse leading to a fight. The nurse said you this AIDS patient.

“That is a public servant who was supposed to keep the status of her patient secret. We don't want such in the public service that we are running.”