Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Organized Labour in Ondo State has lampooned the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu on Special Duties, Dr. Doyin Odebowale, over his recent remarks that teachers were using pupils for domestic chores.
The group said the utterance was capable of causing industrial disharmony between the state government and the workforce.
In a protest letter signed by the state chairmen and secretaries of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiating Council (JNC), Sunday Adeleye-Oluwole, Helen Odofin, Niyi Fabunmi; Omokehinde Shado, Tajudeen Balogun and Kehinde Olomiye respectively, labour stressed the need for Odebowale to apologise to the teachers.
Odebowale had at a news conference in Akure accused teachers in the state of engaging pupils in domestic chores, warning them to desist from using pupils to work in private farms under the guise of practicals for agricultural studies or face sanction.
“We gathered that some teachers in schools in rural areas have formed the habit of using pupils to work in their private farms under the guise of doing agricultural practicals. Some send female pupils to be cooking for them.”
But in a letter to Akeredolu dated November 17, organised labour flayed the “unacceptable, vituperation of Dr. Odebowale against the respected teachers in the employ of Ondo State government who had been doing and giving their best in line with best practices of the teaching profession.”
They added: “The mouth diarrhea of Doyin Odebowale has not just manifested in his recent attack against our members in NUT and ASUSS as reported in both electronic and print media, he has verbally too, assaulted teachers and local government workers to the face of the NUT state chairman calling them unprintable names.”
