Sacked Oyo workers head to court

Some workers recently sacked by the Seyi Makinde -led Oyo state government are heading to a Court to challenge their ‘unfair dismissal cases’.

Oyo State government, had on Wednesday announced the sack of 341 workers following alleged irregularities in their documents.

The government, also said it discovered forty-one ghost workers in its service.

It, however claimed, in a statement by Taiwo Adisa, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde that the 341, who indicated their decision of voluntary retirement to the Implementation Committee, 290 officers had turned in their voluntary retirement letters.

Adisa maintained that the implementation committee of the Oyo State 2019/2020 Civil/Public Servants Audit and Payroll Re-engineering/Validation Exercise recommended the removal of 41 staff classified as ‘ghost workers’.

But, Counsel to the affected workers, Mukhtar Aderogba, on Thursday informed that he has notified the Local Government Service Commission on the resolve of the affected individuals to seek redress in the Court.

He further alleged that the government did not allow the workers to explain themselves before they were sacked.

His words, “What happened was that the government embarked on a screening exercise for civil servants at the local government. At the end of the screening, they said that some workers were indicted and there were irregularities in their documents.

“Upon that instead of affording the workers to explain themselves and defend the allegations against them, what we heard was that the government mounted pressure on the affected workers to tender their letters of voluntary retirement.

“So, when the pressure was so much, some of them rendered their letters of voluntary retirement. But, there were some who said that they were not involved in any irregularities. They said that they are not going to tender any letter.

“The government now served the affected workers letters of compulsory retirement. So, it is one of such persons that I am currently representing. Even though, some other workers have approached me to also represent them.

“So, the place we are now is that we have served the local government service commission a letter given them notice of our intention to a Court of law. So, that is the stage we are now.

“But, if the government follow a proper line, by reversing the compulsory retirement, we will not need to proceed to Court, but once our demands are not properly addressed, we will have no option than to approach a Court of law”, Aderogba submitted.