BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Over 1,500 teachers, whose appointments were nullified by the Osun State government have stormed streets of Osogbo in protest and called on stakeholders and well meaning citizens of the state to prevail on the state governor, Ademola Adeleke to absorb them.
Upon the inception of his administration, Governor Adeleke had, through an executive order, nullified the recruitment of the teachers among other workers said to have been illegally employed by the immediate past administration of Adegboyega Oyetola.
The new government had claimed that Oyetola, in the twilight of his administration, having lost the July 16 governorship election, hurriedly employed some workers as part of parting gifts to his political supporters.
But the teachers have argued that their employment followed due process and that they have no political affiliation with the the ruling party, All Progressives Congress as rumoured.
While protesting on Monday, the teachers carried placards with various inscriptions such as; “We Followed Due Process, Please Don’t Send Us Back to the Streets”, “We Lost Four Colleagues Already, Please, Consider Our Plight”, “Osun State Students/Pupils Need Us”, “Please Rescue Us,” among others.
They demonstrated peacefully and urged the stakeholders in the state to come to their aid by prevailing on the governor to allow them to continue working.
One of them, Adedeji Emmanuel said they were professionally qualified to take up the job after they had undergone rigorous screening during the recruitment exercise.
Emmanuel who said he was posted to Ife-East local government area of the state further explained that many of the newly recruited had graduated for about ten to fifteen years without doing anything before they were employed by the immediate past governor.
He sought the intervention of all stakeholders and well-meaning citizens of the state to help them to plead with Governor Adeleke to reconsider them and lift the nullification placed on their employments.
“I am one of the 1,500 newly recruited teachers for both primary and secondary schools in Osun. I was given an appointment letter in September 30th, 2022 and the process for this recruitment began in the year 2020, through the year 2022 when we were told to pick up our appointment letters. Immediately, we were given an appointment letters, we all reported to our primary places of assignments.
“We have been dutiful patriotic citizens of this state and upon resumption in all these places of our assignment, we were gladly received by the teachers, students, and parents.
“We are pleading with our Governor and all stakeholders and well-meaning citizens of the state to plead with Governor to reconsider us and give us a positive response. We are dying in silence,” he added.
Another sacked teacher, Ishola Yunusi, urged Governor Adeleke not to send them back to the streets over their employment review.
Yunusi said they have no place to go any longer as they have a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders.
According to her, “we are here to plead with Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke to have mercy on us concerning our appointment as the teachers in state.
“We have tried all our best to get his attention to talk to us to know what our faith is concerning this employment. But haven’t been able to get his response, true be told we are dying of depression.
“Right now we have nowhere to go and we have a lot of responsibility on our shoulders. Many of us are mothers and fathers and some have ages at home and younger ones we cater for,” he added.
It could be recalled that Adeleke had constituted a committee review the appointments and recruitments made by his predecessor after the July 16 poll in the state. The committee is yet to make its report public.
