Controversy is trailing the alleged illegal sacking of over 300 teachers of the Bayelsa State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) by the Governor Seriake Dickson administration.
Saturday Independent gathered that the affected teachers were employed by the administration of former Governor Timipre Sylva but they were disengaged from service soon after the Dickson government inaugurated a new SUBEB with Walton Liverpool as its executive secretary.
While the board under Liverpool claimed that the teachers’ employment did not follow due process, the aggrieved teachers were said to have accused the board of carrying out the action in bad faith.
According to the representatives of the teachers, in a statement in Yenagoa, on Monday, Liverpool stopped their salaries immediately he assumed office, ordering fresh verification and directing their principals to desist from paying them.
They alleged that they were subjected to series of verifications by a team set up by Liverpool and headed by one Chief B. Izagara.
“The team recommended that we should be retained as teachers in the state while more teachers of science background be employed. The governor adopted the recommendations and approved that our salaries should be paid,” they said.
But Liverpool, they added, delayed the implementation of the recommendations for a long time and eventually issued them fresh employment letters, placing them on three-month probation.
“To our utmost surprise, the same Liverpool came on air to announce our suspension from work after working for three months, claiming that our re-engagement was done in error.
“This is the same re-engagement he publicized in the media as having followed due process. It is painful that our arrears of salaries, before our employment was suspended, have not been paid.
“Even the three months we worked after our re-engagement have yet to be paid for. So, we are compelled to believe that this whole thing is political,” they said.
They called on the governor to intervene, stressing that as a man of law, he would not allow the SUBEB to truncate his declaration of a state of emergency in the education sub-sector through indiscriminate sacking of teachers.
They wondered why the board would act against the panel’s recommendations, which were approved by the governor.
“We know that the governor, being a man of law who believes in restoration, did not approve this unjust treatment we are receiving from Liverpool,” the teachers said.
