Osun tertiary institution exonerates Aregbesola of staff retrenchment

…Assembly call for affected staff files

Management of the Osun State-owned tertiary institutions has said that the state government has no hand in the sack of some of their teaching and non-teaching staff.

Responding to questions at a meeting called by the state House of Assembly in Osogbo on Tuesday, they said it was the discretion of the institutions to retrench the staff who have run foul of the requirements of their jobs.

This is just as the Speaker, Honourable Najeem Salaam called for the files of the affected lecturers for the Assembly to investigate whether the sacked workers have indeed run foul of the requirement of their job, directing the management to suspend the action until the investigation is concluded by the house.

The Rector, Osun State Polytechnic Iree, Dr Sola Agboola; his College of Technology, Esa-Oke counterpart, Dr Augustus Oke; Provost, College of Education, Ilesa, Dr. Kadiri Adegoke and his Ila-Orangun counterpart, Professor Isaac Oyewole said none of the staff of the institutions was unjustifiably sacked.

One after the other, they identified redundancy, inappropriate qualifications, poor academic development, declining productivity, questionable certificates, and disciplinary matters among other as part of the criteria for the disengagement of the affected teaching and non-teaching staff of the institution.

Dr Oke said the problem in the system, dated back to 2005 when due process was not followed in the staff engagement when political office holders give out note for lecturers to report to the institution without the appropriate certificate.

Agboola in his own said the institutions were not involved in the recruitment of staff from 2005 to 2007, saying, it was done at the instance of the political class.

The duo said consultants were engaged to carry out staff audit and at the end, the affected staff were found wanting.

Also, Professor Oyewole said the exercise was not meant to witch-hunt the staff, but was done in good faith to bring sanity into the education system in the state.

Noting that some of the affected staff had disciplinary issues including extortion of students and aiding exam malpractices among others, he said the offence committed by the affected officials were contained in their files.

Reacting, the Speaker of the Assembly wondered why the management had to wait till now if indeed the affected staff have been found wanting in one way or the other.

“If somebody has a questionable certificate, you must have known before now; and if a person is engaging in disciplinary activities, your must have had the hint. Why do you have to wait till now to generate noises”, he said.

Noting that the Assembly would not condone the disengagement of the staff of the institutions unjustifiably, he directed the institution to suspend the action for now.

Salaam who hinted that a letter for the commencement of strike action had been received from the Academic Staff Union of the institution, urged the union not to embark on any strike for now, as effort is being taken by the Assembly to resolve the matter.