2,783 Ekiti LG workers’ fate hangs

By GBENGA ARIYIBI

Ado Ekiti — Tension has mounted in Ekiti   State over the fate of about 2,783 council workers, as the state government has asked them to produce vital  documents to justify their appointments.

According to a circular signed  on behalf of the Permanent Secretary, Local Government Service Commission by Mr. David Jejelowo,  and  pasted in all the council areas, workers suspected to have been illegally appointed were asked to produce some vital documents.

In the circular , 320 of the workers were marked  to have overstayed in service by virtue of age and length of service and had been asked to produce their letters of first appointments, birth certificates, original copies of educational certificates and their personal files to be forwarded to the Commission before 17th December, 2012.

Most of the councils visited yesterday, workers were seen in cluster discussing the matter.

Vanguard gathered that no fewer than  1, 511  workers,  had been declared  to have been illegally appointed into the local governments,  while  a total of 593 and 357 had been listed  as redundant and  allegedly  promoted beyond bar, respectively.

Reacting to the development, the Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE,  Victor Adebayo, who described the government’s action as surprising, said they would not fold their arms and allow government to sack its people unjustly.

Branding the measure as an attempt  to punish the workers unduly, he  appealed to government to stay action on the matter to douse the raging tension in the Ekiti State.