13th June, 2012
The management of the Lagos State Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has dismissed at least 160 workers guilty of various offences including falsification of certificates, low productivity, absenteeism, among others.
The Chairman of Lagos BRT, Mr. Sunday Yusuff, disclosed that several drivers were discovered to have been using expired licenses.
He said about two months ago, the management embarked on an exercise to verify the documents of all workers during which they were required to submit original copies of their certificates and other documents.
“Some staffers presented fake certificates, while some who were employed based on the qualification they claimed they had could not present papers to back up their claims. Some did not even show up at all for the exercise,” he said.
The exercise, which resulted in the sack of 23 drivers, 93 bus officers and 44 supportive staff, was rumoured by some workers to have been a deliberate witch-hunt of certain people the management had other grouses with.
Yusuff debunked such claims, stating that there was no reason to go after any person.
“The verification exercise was transparently carried out. No reasonable person would fault the yardstick used in carrying out the exercise and we gave everybody the opportunity and time to ensure compliance with the directives. We even went to the extent of writing some schools to help fast track the process. At the end of the day, the majority of the workers met the requirements.
“We are not interested in anybody’s job, but we are reorganising the system in order to achieve the goals and objectives of setting it up,” he said.
By Yisa Jamiu