UNSPECIFIED number of staff of Abia State
Polytechnic, Aba, will soon lose their job.
Also, another unspecified number of the institution’s workers would be down graded from their present positions.
This followed the recommendation of a panel set up in January by the state government to audit and
verify credentials of staff of the polytechnic.
It was alleged that several workers in the institution secured employment with fake certificates and that many unqualified staff of the polytechnic are:
holding positions they did not merit.
Based on this complaint from the public, the
government set up a panel, headed by Mr.Chibuike
Nwokoukwu, which submitted its report to Governor Theodore Orji, weekend.
Presenting its interim report, Nwokoukwu said the
panel sat regularly,interviewed all academic and
non-academic staff of the institution, looked at the
originals of their certificates and retained the
photocopies, which had been forwarded to the
issuing institutions for actual confirmation of their
authenticity.
He disclosed that the interim report contained four
annexures, which included the names of staff
recommended by the panel to be downgraded from
their present position as well as others
recommended for outright disengagement from the
polytechnic.
Nwokoukwu urged the government to implement
the recommendations in the interest of the state in
general and polytechnic in particular.
Receiving the report, Governor Orji assured that the report would be implemented and advised
unqualified staff of the polytechnic to avoid being
disgraced out by the government.
The governor said that as an institution of learning,
both academic and non- academic staff in the
school ought to be adequately qualified, pointing
out that as a centre of excellence, it should not
harbor those with fraudulent certificates.
Orji, however, blamed the over bloated workforce of
the polytechnic on members of the Governing
Council who use their position to employ their
cronies without waiver from the government.
He restates that the essence of setting up the panel was to investigate the activities in the institution according to the wishes of the people of the state and maintained that government will be justified to take action on the recommendation of the panel.
To that end, he assured that his administration will
implement the recommendation of the panel and
pointed out that the exercise is not aimed at witch-
hunting anyone.
