The disengaged staff of Abia State Polytechnic, Aba have called on the Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex Otti OFR, to constitute a judicial panel of inquiry to ascertain the rots in the institution since 2013 till date.
The representatives of the disengaged staff who include: former Chairman Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics, Abiapoly chapter, Comrade Nwachukwu Chuks, former Director of sports, Mrs Edith Nwakiere, former member of the governing council, Ifeyinwa Ekezie, former head of department, Guidance and Counseling, Dr. Azu Oko,former Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics,Abiapoly chapter executive member, Comrade Peter Ibe, Mrs Nwankire Edith
among others made the call while interacting with newsmen in Aba.
They appealed to Governor Dr. Alex Otti to publish the report of a staff verification committee constituted by the then Commissioner for Education in Abia State, Professor Ikechi Mgboji and that of the visitation panel constituted by the former governor Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu on the two billion naira Bank loan. From the two billion naira loan the then council paid only five months arrears to workers. They claimed 100 million was used to cut grasses and twelve million used to fight ebola”. Instead of publishing the reports, the state government went ahead to issue compulsory termination of appointment and compulsory retirement letters to the innocent staff against due process.
According to them, their disengagement was malicious and politically motivated. The disengaged staff said since they sacked them, the government of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has continued to downsize and employ their own candidates in order to achieve his nepotic agenda of acceptable Ngwa versus Ohuhu ratio of staff. This they said contradicts his claim of staff over population and financial insolvency.
They alleged that Okezie Ikpeazu used the then commissioners for Information and Education to spread a lot of misinformation about the school and to intimidate and victimize the then labour unions leaders.
The disengaged staff further revealed that they approached the industrial court in Owerri praying the court to quash what they called “illegal disengagement and also to return them back to work”.
Meanwhile, effort made to hear from the management of the polytechnic did not yield good results because the public relations officer of Abia State Polytechnic Aba, Stella Nwakanma did not reply to a text message sent to her.
