Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Osun State chapter, Comrade Jacob Adekomi on Saturday appealed to Governor Gboyega Oyetola to stay action on 769 civil servants, who were alleged to have used forged certificates to secure employment.
A report submitted by a consultancy firm contracted to verify credentials of workers had indicted 769 workers in certificate scandal.
Reacting over the development during a telephone chat with Tribune Online, Adekomi said: “We are imploring Mr Governor to stay action on the report submitted by the consultancy firm.
“We at the labour level have not seen the report. We want to see the copy of the report so that we can engage the affected workers and hear from them.
“But for now we are imploring the governor not to take any action on the report. We want to study the report the moment it is made available to the labour,” Adekomi remarked.
It is recalled that the report submitted by the Captain Consultants, engaged five years ago by the state government to verify the credentials and other necessary documents of the workers had declared that 769 workers allegedly used fake certificates to secure employment.
According to a press release signed by the Supervisor for the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Mr Adelani Baderinwa, “the screening of the workers’ credentials came on the heel of controversies and reported forgery of results with which some of the workers allegedly secured jobs in the Osun civil service.”
It reads, “at the commencement of the screening exercise in 2015, all the civil servants in the state were asked to submit their credentials in their personal files, from which the Captain Consultants firm got access to their results and begun the verification exercise.
ALSO READ: Olubadan unveils new Iyalode as Ibadan cultural week begins
“Each and every result submitted by each of the workers were verified in their various secondary schools, post-secondary schools and tertiary institutions. Some of the workers who were suspected to have forged/fake results were summoned by the firm and asked to present original results or go to their various schools for either attestation or re-confirmation.
“The firm, on its own approached the schools for ‘confirmation of results’ of the affected workers for which they were obliged. The verification process uncovered serious certificate infraction on the part of some of the workers across Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Government.
“In some cases, as discovered in the verification process, some of the affected workers used another person’s result, while some forged their secondary and post-secondary schools results to secure jobs in the civil service.
“In the case of some people employed as drivers in the service, it was discovered that they forged the O’Level results they submitted for their appointment.
“However, the firm in its report recommended that some of the civil servants caught in the certificate infraction be pardoned, while some should not be pardoned.
“Recommended for pardon are 102 drivers and 30 other workers who are to be pardoned on compassionate ground. A total of 586 workers are not pardoned, while the case of some 51 workers was still pending.
“While the exercise was on, some of the workers who were cleared and pardoned were receiving their salary while those that are yet to be pardoned have their salary suspended.
“A complete list of all the workers involved in the certificate infraction has been posted at the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Civil Service Commission and Local Government Service Commission. Affected workers should check their names in the aforementioned places”, the statement concluded.