By Nosa Eresoyen, Asaba
Retirement fever has continued to unsettled lecturers at the Delta State owned higher institutions following the discovery of most of the lecturers who have clocked sixty years of age and are still in service.
The affected schools, investigation revealed, include; Colleges of Education, Warri/Agbor/Mosogar, Polytechnic in Ogwashi-Uku, Otefe-Oghara and Ozoro where they recently state audit clearly shown that many of the lecturers have clocked sixty years of age and were still in service.
It was reliably gathered that names of the lecturers already sixty years old have allegedly been removed from by the state government’s instruction.
But Mrs. Patience Okwuofu, the State Chairman of the Civil Service Commission said the affected lecturers’ names were removed on the fact of their age that was dear to be sixty years, disclosing as measures to fish out ghost workers including those who falsified their age records, names of the lecturers and their records were looked into.
She said: “those who names are on the list of over-aged teaching and non-teaching staff in the state owned tertiary institutions of learning have been delisted (removed) from payroll pending when they are able to clear the irregularity surrounding their age”.
Investigation revealed that affected lecturers had expressed their shock over the development, thinking that the state government had fixed the benchmark for retirement in Polytechnics and Colleges of Education in the state at 65 years of age.
Some of the affected lecturers who did not want their names in the print, however appealed to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to have a rethink with a view to making the retirement benchmark 65 years old.
In his reaction, the state Commissioner for Higher Education, Engr. Jude Sinebe said the exercise would be overall interest of the state disclosing that the increasing monthly wage bill, had unsettled the financial strength of the state government in the recent times.
0 Comments