We Don’t Know You – 700 Tertiary Schools’ Workers Disowned By Delta State Government

SAN FRANCISCO, November 30, (THEWILL) – Over 700 academic and non-academic staff of some tertiary institutions in Delta state, whose names were not on the State's payroll have been disowned by the state government over 'illegal' employment.

This was disclosed on Wednesday by the state's Commissioner for Higher Education, Jude Sinebe, at a news conference in Asaba, revealing that there was no provision for such employment before the staff were engaged.

“In tertiary institutions, we don't just employ workers for the sake of employment. We only employ when there is a need for such workers,” he declared.

“This issue can be likened to a case of illegal employment and I can tell you that it is not only in the Delta Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku; we have similar cases at the State Colleges of Education in Agbor and Warri.

“The affected staff were employed out of the institutions' statutory provisions. The system that we operate does not recognise them as our staff, as such, we cannot pay them.

“Many of the schools went out of their way to employ the affected staff without recourse to approval from the state government.”

Many of those affected are lecturers, technicians, information officers, clerical officers and messengers.

Story by Oputah David