BY: Chioma Onuegbu, Uyo

THE Akwa Ibom State government has refuted rumours in some quarters in the state capital that some of the recruited teachers who took government to court following the cancellation of their appointments would not participate in the screening and revalidation exercise holding today, Saturday, February, 11, 2017 at the designated centres.

The rumours making the rounds in the state capital in the past few days was that those affected personnel who went to court over the matter would not be allowed to participate in the fresh screening exercise.

Reacting on the speculations yesterday the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Charles Udoh said the rumours were the handiwork of mischief makers who were out to destroy the image of government.

Gov Emmanuel Udom

Udoh stressed that government has given all the affected five thousand personnel whose appointments were canceled another opportunity to prove that they are qualified for the teaching job, adding that government has no ulterior motive to cut down the figure as every qualified personnel would be given their jobs back.

He said, “Five thousand persons were in the picture and now government is giving all the 5000 another opportunity. By implication if all the 5000 are qualified all will get back on board. If you think that you are qualified government is giving you another chance. Those that are qualified, and do not have any skeleton in their cupboards will not be screaming.

“I don’t see why anybody should be worried unless they are people who want to blackmail government because they know that they don’t have the requisite certificate to qualify them as teachers. The question you people should ask them is why would they go to court when government has given you a second chance to prove that you are qualified?”

He emphasized that through the screening and revalidation exercise government wants to ensure that only qualified teachers were employed into the school system adding that government had no ulterior motive by nullifying the appointment of the 5000 personnel.

The state government through the head of Civil Service, Mrs. Ekereobong Akpan last Wednesday announced that modalities have been set up for the exercise in line with its promise of employing qualified personnel into the teaching service by opening another window of recruitment to enable affected persons defend their suitability in another round of test.

It could be recalled that the state government had on October, 29, 2016 cancelled the appointment of five thousand personnel recruited as teachers whose appointments on grounds of observed irregularities in the process of their recruitment.