17th June, 2015
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State may soon sack 13,200 teachers employed by his predecessor, former governor Rotimi Amaechi.
The teachers’ sack is imminent follwoing a resolution passed Tuesday by the state House of Assembly empowering him to sack the board of the State Civil Service Commission, accusing members of the board of breaching rules and illegally employing workers into the state service.
The Rivers lawmakers passed the resolution after questioning the Chairman of the Service Commission, Mr Ngo Martins Yellowe, on the floor of the House following petitions accusing the commission of not passing through due process before employing workers in the past three years.
Yellowe told the lawmakers that the commission under his leadership adhered to the constitution and laws guiding employment into the service.
Observers of Rivers politics see invitation and questioning of Yellowe by the lawmakers as a prelude to the sacking of the commission appointed by the immediate past administration of Governor Chibuike Amaechi and also the sacking the civil servants employed in the past three years, especially over 13,200 teachers and others engaged by the immediate past administration of Governor Chibuike Amaechi.
The invitation of key agencies by the lawmakers to answer questions on the floor of the House based on petitions written by some aggrieved members of the public is following a trend. It all began when the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, Chairman Prof Augustine Ahiazu was invited to answer questions about how local government election was conducted. Thereafter a resolution was passed mandating Governor Wike to sack the commission. Wike sacked RSIEC the next day.
The Rivers State Judiciary Service Commission suffered same fate after its members were invited to the floor of the House to be questioned.
Fear has gripped over 13,200 teachers and at least 400 doctors and nurses employed by former Governor Amaechi that they may be shown the way out of service if they fall into the category of workers adjudged to have been wrongly employed.