..As Top Officials Reject Bribery To Influence Outcome
By Okey Alozie
Even as Imo Government is making plans to revive the Education sector and make it more result oriented again, yet some staff of Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB,) Teachers and Principals are said to be working against State Government’s plans by allegedly presenting mutilated and forged certificates in other to remain in office after retirement date.
Against this backdrop the Government according to sources has resolved to go into fresh verification to fish out the culprits who do not want to go after retirement.
This time, the Government is going into biometric verification exercise and have directed that every Staff of SEMB, Teachers and Principals of Schools must show their birth certificates and other documents for truth to be ascertained at a glance.
Further information revealed that many Teachers and Principals who are supposed to have retired long ago are still in the system and each time Government call for verification, they will go into hiding for fear of being exposed.
Moreover, many of them that have godfathers are being protected and covered from being removed from office.
Recently, some Principals allegedly made some move to bribe their way but along the line, their plan backfired and hit the rock.
Our source revealed that few Principals ganged up and went to bribe their way in the name of courtesy call to the office of a Government appointee (names withheld) whom they felt can protect them and soft pedal the execution of Biometric verification exercise for principals and the implementation of the white paper on down-sizing and right sizing of SEMB workers. The Principals in question, were more than 10 in number and t presented huge sums and valuables items to the said Government appointee but he rejected all their gifts and told them that he has come to sanitize the system, adding that everybody should sit up and turn a new leaf.
He was said to have maintained that those that retired must surely leave the Service for younger ones to come in.
This message sent danger signal to Principals, Teachers and most of the SEMB staff who were indicted by Panels set up in the past.
Many of them are now on the run for fear of prosecution because it was alleged that they have overstayed in Service even after past Panels recommended their dismissal from service for one reason or the other.
Report has it that those who took their first School Leaving certificate of education (FSLCE) in 1976 by now should be above 60 years of age and should have been retired since last year.
Therefore, all those who took their FSLCE IN 1976, 1975,1974 and so on and but are still in the service are in serious trouble as the new biometric exercise will not spear any one.
The biometric verification exercise according to experts will expose a lot of things and bring sanity in the Education sector especially in SEMB where a lot of atrocities were said to have been committed both at the high and low places. Concerned Imolites are now begging the new commissioner for Education to consider it very necessary as a matter of urgency to set up Panel that will investigate forgery and false affidavits submitted by any Staff.
