11th February, 2017
The Akwa Ibom chapter of Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) has threatened to drag Akwa Ibom government to court for contempt over the re-screening of 5000 teachers sacked last October by the state government.
Mr Clifford Thomas, the state chairman of CLO, stated this on Saturday in Uyo.
Thomas explained that the case of the 5000 teachers recruited in 2015, only to be sacked after two year,s was already pending at the Uyo Division of National Industrial Court.
He said that the court had slated Feb. 20 for hearing and all the parties had been served, as such going ahead with the re-screening, was contemptuous.
“The state government is running foul of the court process; they are trying to stop the court from doing justice; this is criminal contempt of the court.
“Whatever screening they are doing now is an illegality; we will bring contempt charge on the Head of Service and other officers of the state government,” Thomas threatened.
The Akwa Ibom government had fixed Feb. 11 for the re-screening of the affected teachers on ground of alleged fake credentials and other irregularities observed in the recruitment process.
Reacting to CLO threat, the state Head of Service (HOS), Mrs Ekereobong Akpan, who was monitoring the progress of the exercise on Saturday, told NAN that screening was not new in the civil service.
Akpan acknowledged that 22 affected teachers went to court and the re-screening was not organised for them.
“We are not doing it for them. Before I reached this level in the civil service, I had undergone several screening and rescreening.
“The 22 affected teachers ,who went to court, are exempted from the screening, pending the outcome of the legal action,” Akpan said.
Akpan debunked allegation that the screening was a fraud intended to deprive the original 5000 teachers of their offer of appointment.
“We are using the list of the 5000 teachers recruited in 2015 and we are not adding or subtracting from the list,” Akpan said.
She said that the teachers were expected to do written tests on their different subjects of specialty before final selection.