NAN
Gov. Idris Wada of Kogi on Wednesday sacked the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Jibrin Usman.
Also relieved of their positions were other members of the board.
A statement signed by Mr Jacob Edi, a Special Adviser to the governor, said that the removal of the officials was with immediate effect.
The statement, however, did not give reason for the removal of the officials, but approved a six-man interim management committee to run the affairs of the board under the chairmanship of Mr Salami Ojonaun.
It, therefore, directed the sacked officials to hand over all government property in their possession to Ojonaun.
Other members of the committee include Mallam Abubakar Sani, Mr Elijah Folorunsho, Mr Peter Kinrin and Mr Abraham Adavi.
The statement also directed the interim committee to quickly effect all payments of salaries of genuine and certified teaching and non-teaching staff under the board’s supervision.
It also mandated the committee to clean up the administrative and technical anomalies in the board with a view to re-positioning it for effective performance.
It will recalled that teachers in public primary and junior secondary schools in the state recently staged a peaceful protest against the non-payment of their February and March salaries by the board.
The teachers, under the aegis of Basic Education Staff Association of Nigeria (BESAN), also accused the board of non payment of their leave allowances for three years as well as the alleged non-implementation of promotion of some of their members.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the association, Mr Suleiman Adomu, described the dissolution of the board as a welcome development, adding that teachers in the state had been vindicated by the governor’s action.
He called on the governor to go further by suspending the education secretaries, accountants and auditors in all the 21 local government councils in the state and to investigate their activities to rid the sector of corruption.
Adomu also pledged the support of members of the association to the state government and urged it not to relent until total transformation of the education sector in the state was achieved.
