Kogi State Commissioner For Education, Science and Technology, Mr Wemi Jones, has said that the State Government has no plan to sack any teacher.
The commissioner made the clarification in a statement on Friday in Lokoja, while reacting to purported report making the rounds in some sections of the media that ”Governor Yahaya Bello has reportedly ordered the sack of Kogi teachers who are not APC supporters.”
The commissioner described the purported report as ”fake news, absolute falsehood, misinformation, and baseless”.
”It is a figment of the imagination of unscrupulous individuals masquerading under the guise of opposition with the intention to create disaffection amongst teachers and workers in the state.
”As a matter of fact, the state government is about releasing the list of 1,500 successful applicants to be employed as teachers in the state’s secondary schools in the first phase of the ongoing recruitment exercise for teachers.
”So, the purported report is from the pit of hell,” he said.
The commissioner emphasised that the just-concluded teachers’ recruitment exercise in the state, was very transparent as nobody was asked to show his or her party membership card, whether APC, PDP or otherwise.
He said all applicants were interviewed based on their possession of the requisite qualifications to be teachers in the state.
”So, this misinformation is one too many by the opposition, as the report is not logical, but one laced with lies and vendetta to paint the state government black for no just cause.
”There was no time any directive was issued to local government chairmen as contained in the report to compile names of teachers not sympathetic to the APC.
”This present administration is one that has placed premium on the recruitment and improvement of the welfare of teachers and workers top on the front burner,” Jones said.
He said that the leadership of organised labour in Kogi has recently commended the state government for the release of promotion, payment of promotion arrears for teachers and other workers’ benefits in the state.
Jones stressed that the present administration of Governor Bello, had repositioned the education sector to the admiration of the people since the creation of the state.
The commissioner said that Bello remained a democrat who would not muzzle any citizen of the state over the choice of exercising there franchise.
Jones emphasised that the good works of Yahaya Bello, in repositioning the education sector, was enough to convince the teachers and other citizens to vote for APC in the forthcoming general elections.
Jones reaffirmed the determination of the state government to allow the people to freely make their choices in the forthcoming general elections.
The commissioner urged journalists to always cross check their facts before publishing to ensure a balanced and unbiased reportage, as the way to go in modern democracy.
