The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest has accused the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of planning to sack more than 50 percent of the over 18,000 primary and secondary teachers in the State, warning that; “Fayemi’s treatment of Ekiti State workers like slaves is a direct invitation to anarchy in the State.”
Zonal Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Kayode Babade, who raised this alarm in a statement issued today, also challenged Governor Fayemi to make public the amount of money budgeted for the controversial compulsory test for teachers under the Teachers Development Needs Assessment (TDNA), alleging that; “Over N200 million tax payers has already been wasted on the controversial project, which has no direct bearing on the well-being of Ekiti people.”
Teachers in the State had on Monday, shunned the 39 designated centres for the examination in spite of Fayemi’s open threat to sanction them if they failed to turn up for the examination.
The PDP challenged Fayemi to tell the whole world what happened to principals and vice principals of secondary schools as well as Local Councils’ Treasurers and Directors of Administration that participated in similar examinations last year. He should tell the public how many of them are still in the employ of the State government?
The PDP statement read; “Consequent upon the refusal of teachers in Ekiti State to turn of for the TDNA compulsory test yesterday, Fayemi is now toying with the idea of directing the State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) and State Universal basic Education Board (SUBEB) to query all the teachers.
“Failure to respond to the query within 48 hours of receipt will result to termination of the appointment of at least, 50 percent of the teachers!
“This measure is aimed at achieving Fayemi’s original aim of conducting the botched compulsory test, which is to reduce the number of teachers in the State by at least 40 percent.”
While also accusing Fayemi of lavishing over N200 million on the controversial examination, Babade said; “The main reason Fayemi and his cohorts are up in arms against the teachers over the failed examination was to justify the over N200 million they took from the treasury of Ekiti State for the TDNA. And now that the examination did not hold, their headache is how they are going to account for the fund.”