Ekiti State Govt sacks 2,000 workers

…Fayose: This is the height of wickedness

No fewer than 2,000 workers will be re-enlisting into the job market, following the decision by the Ekiti State Government of Gov. Kayode Fayemi, to sack all those employed in the twilight of Ayo Fayose’s immediate past regime.

The announcement sacking the workers was made yesterday, in Ado Ekiti, capital of Ekiti State, south west Nigeria, by the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Muyiwa Olumilua, after the weekly state executive meeting.

“All appointments made after the gubernatorial election of July 2018, an exercise found to have violated due process, are hereby cancelled and declared null and void.

“All affected persons are advised to participate in the next recruitment exercise to be announced in due course,” Olumilua announced.

He said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had warned against illegal recruitment, and urged job seekers to shun last minute moves by Fayose to employ some people into the state civil service.

The affected workers include the 2,000 of those employed after the July 14, 2018, governorship election in Ekiti, won by Governor Kayode Fayemi.

Fayose, reacting to the sack, described it as the height of wickedness and political vendetta.

“Fayemi has only succeeded in writing his name in the history books of the state as one who inflicts pains and sorrow on the people.”

“Fayemi has only demonstrated the wickedness in his heart by sacking Ekiti sons and daughters who were duly employed by the state government.

“It will be on record that the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) government of Fayose gave jobs to over 2,000 unemployed youths in the state while the APC government of Fayemi sacked them,” his spokesperson, Lere Olayinka, said in a statement yesterday.

According to the commissioner the decision to sack those he described as illegal staff was arrived at after studying the reports of a panel set up to review employments into the state civil service in the last four years.

He said that Gov. Fayemi has directed the Head of Service (HoS), Mr. Ayodeji Ajayi, to collate all available vacancies in the civil service, with the overhead implications, to enable the state government prepare to recruit suitable and qualified Ekiti citizens into the public service, irrespective of political party affiliations.

“The officers reinstated into the Local Government Service Commission between October 16, 2014, and October 15, 2018 are to be re-absorbed by the relevant personnel boards, as well as migrated to bio-metric payroll with immediate effect.

“All 272 officers employed by the Fayose administration, who are still on manual payroll, shall be considered for absorption into the civil service, but on case-by-case basis. Absorption will be conditional on availability of vacancies.

“The 169 officers recruited in 2014, but had their appointments terminated by the Fayose administration shall be considered for re-absorption by the Ekiti State House of Assembly Service Commission, but on a case-by-case basis. Re-absorption will be conditional on availability of vacancies in their previous offices of appointment,” the commissioner stated in his briefing.

The commissioner added: “Officers dismissed between October 16, 2014, and October 15, 2018, in the following ministries should go to the Office of Establishment to ascertain their current status.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Sola Adigun, has appealed to the state government not to use the error and mistake of the past government to mete out punishment on innocent workers.

“This is not a right, but a plea to the government to allow them remain in the system. We are going to see Governor Fayemi and Head of Service, Ayodeji Ajayi, to please stop this recurrent issue of government sacking those employed by their predecessors,” he said. (RS/THISDAY)