NEWS: Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike sacks 344 lecturers

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike ordered yesterday the sack of 344 lecturers and others employed for the Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori-Ogoni, the headquarters of Khana Local Government Area.

The teachers were employed by the Rotimi Amaechi administration last September.

The governor also disbanded the Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority (TIMA-RIV).  His Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Opunabo Inko-Tariah, confirmed TIMA-RIV’s disbandment. TIMA-RIV was put in place by Amaechi, shortly after he became governor on October 26, 2007.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the polytechnic , Innocent Ogbonna, confirmed the sack of the lecturers.

Ogbonna also disclosed that the Rector of the Institution, Obianko Elechi, began his terminal leave two weeks ago on the instruction of the state government.

Ogbonna said: “The recent employment exercise we had at the Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori has been cancelled. The process used in employing them was such that the government needs to review. As we speak now that process has already been terminated by the incumbent government.

“As it stands now, they don’t have any job with the Polytechnic now; that is the truth, moreso when they are yet to start work before the process was dissolved.”

On the sack of 344 lecturers and other workers of the Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, Wike’s media adviser said: “Their employment did not follow due process, done in a hurry and fraught with irregularities. Until the irregularities are cleared, they remain sacked. The Rector of Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori was asked to proceed on compulsory leave, because of official misconduct and being investigated. The rector must be on compulsory leave, pending the outcome of the investigations.”

Inko-Tariah, while reacting to Wike’s disbandment of the Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority (TIMA-RIV), put in place by the Amaechi’s administration, said: “TIMA-RIV officials were constituting nuisance and extorting money from Rivers people, leading to accidents and loss of lives of innocent persons. It was a radical departure from what they were asked to be doing. TIMA-RIV will be reconstituted at the appropriate time.”

The Rivers chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), through its Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, condemned the sacking of the 344 lecturers and others, saying Wike should desist from punishing “innocent Rivers people, in his bid to get at Amaechi”.