The management of the Ekiti state University on Thursday announced the reinstatement of the 363 members of staff sacked by the institution.
The decision was reached by the Prof. Bamitale Omole-led Governing Council at its meeting of 7th January, 2020 following the adoption of the report of the management committee set-up to review the report of an external audit firm, DEVTAGE Ltd, that recommended retrenchment.
The institution management had on December 5, 2019 disengaged over 900 of its workforce for alleged certificate forgery, irregular appointment, overage and other sundry of allegations that contravened its condition of service.
The Vice Chancellor said the workers were sacked after the adoption of the report of an external private audit firm, DEVTAGE Ltd, contracted to audit the institution finances and its workforce.
This, he said, was consequent upon the recommendation of the Prof. Bode Asubiojo-led visitation panel set up by Governor Kayode Fayemi, which identified among other things over staffing, redundancy and personnel misalignment in the university as the problem hindering the institution to pay its workers.
But the Joint Action Committee (JAC) comprising of SSANU, NASU, NAAT and the EKSU Alumni Association led by Dr. Oludotun Adetuberu condemned the ‘indiscriminate mass disengagement’, saying the reason for the action was unjustifiable and anathema to the operational rules and regulations of public service.
A statement signed and made available to journalists in Ado Ekiti on Thursday by the EKSU Head of the Directorate of Information Mr. Bode Olofinmuagun, said the recall was sequel to the appeal lodged by those affected to the institution’s governing council.
According to him, “The Governing Council of Ekiti State University at its Special Meeting on 7th January, 2020 approved the reinstatement of 363 members of staff who were recently disengaged by the University.
“The Staff Audit recently carried out clearly exposed the fact that many of the disengaged staff were over aged, some with fake certificates, some falsified their ages, some were illegally recruited and many were indeed ghost workers who never showed up for the exercise.
“The reinstatement of some the staff, according to the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Edward Olanipekun was a vindication of the fact that the exercise was not to witch hunt any member of staff but carried out to reposition the University for better service delivery so that EKSU can become a University of reference nationally and in the global intellectual market of the 21st century,” he said.
