Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, has ordered the sack of about 5,600 teachers alleged to have been fraudulently employed by the Executive Secretary of Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB), Lawrence Ogbonna.
Governor Ikpeazu said the teachers were employed unlawfully and without waiver.
Ikpeazu equally compulsorily retired Ogbonna for alleged employment racketeering.
Ogbonna, who had been on suspension since February when the incident blown open, was, according to a statement by the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the governor, Anthony Agbazuere, accused of fraudulently employing 5,853 teachers between 2018 and 2020 out of which only 187 were given waiver by the governor.
The government urged schools that have need for teachers in some special areas to make their submissions to the Commissioner for Education and copy the Chief of Staff to the governor.
CoS did not say if the retired SEMB executive secretary would be prosecuted.
Meanwhile, teachers in the state are undergoing COVID-19 tests preparatory to resumption of public and private schools on Monday.
The test, according to a statement by the Ministry of Health, was in accordance with the state government’s directive for teachers in both public and private schools and school proprietors to submit themselves for COVID-19 test.
It was gathered that the test was to ascertain, before the resumption of schools, who among the proprietors and teachers had the virus in order to keep the students free and healthy from the coronavirus.
Some teachers were seen at the Amachara General Hospital Isolation Centre, Umuahia, complying with the state government’s directive.
A testing officer from the Ministry of Health, Nwadiche, commended teachers who had shown up for the test and advised others to do same, noting that some may be asymptomatic without knowing it and they go about infecting others with the virus.