Set up committee to hear cases of dismissed workers, NLC urges Oyo govt

• Only WAEC can save affected workers, HOS

SEQUEL to the dismissal of 662 staff of the Oyo State government, the state chapter of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has appealed to the state government to set up a committee to ensure fair hearing for all affected workers, expressing belief that not all workers alleged to possess fake Senior Secondary School Certificates are culpable.

Making reference some complaints from some of its members, the union, through its Chairman, Mr Waheed Olojede, averred that the committee would provide the platform for government to listen to the cases of those affected to establish genuine claims.

In lending credence to the stance of the union not supporting any worker who falsified his or her result, Olojede said the union had advised affected persons with genuine claims to authenticate their result from the West African Examination Council (WAEC) or other concerned examination body and forward their claims to the state government.

“We have had some complaints from some of our members. Those who are affected showed us their letters. All we advised those affected was that they should go to WAEC, authenticate their result and forward it to the government.”

“We do not in any way support any attempt by any worker to falsify their result. However, we appeal to the government that those that are affected should be given a fair hearing through a committee of government that would listen to their cases. It is our belief that not all workers who are alleged could have been culpable of the allegation,” Olojede said.

Noting the credibility of the consultants handling the verification exercise, Captain Consulting, Oyo Head of Service, Mr Soji Eniade, maintained that the persons discovered to have fake SSCE had to prove otherwise.

According to Eniade, it was only the certificate issuing authority like WAEC that could present the certificate of the affected persons for re-verification.

“The onus is on them to prove their certificate is not fake and the only body that can do that is the certificate issuing authority. If WAEC gets back, we send their certificate to the consultant for re-verification. Many results they presented to us were not found in WAEC database. Majority of those affected persons have been disappearing,” Eniade said.