422 Osun Workers Face Sack Over Certificate Fraud

Osun State government has issued directives its ministries, departments, and agencies swiftly act on the report of the panel that proposed sacking of the civil servants with counterfeit certificates.

Speaking the state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Jacob Adekomi, disclosed that 422 workers would be affected.

He further revealed that the NLC’s intervention helped in reducing the number of those marked for the dismissal from 5,000 recommended to 422.

A statement by the Head of Service, Dr. Festus Oyebade, dated September 13 said the immediate past Rauf Aregbesola government engaged the services of a firm, Captain Consulting, to undertake to verify the certificates of all civil servants in the state in 2015.

The statement read, “The panel submitted its report and it was adopted for implementation by the immediate past administration.

“However, when the new administration came on board in November 2018, the leadership of Organised Labour Movement in the state appealed passionately to the state government to have a rethink on the implementation of the report.

“After much pressure from labour, the government set up a five-man panel to further examine the report and make necessary recommendations in line with extant public service rules and regulations.

According to Adekomi, the NLC insisted that the report and recommendations be reviewed because it was convinced that the recommendations of the firm were not a true reflection of the audit, Punch reports.

“When the report was reviewed, only 422 civil servants, whose cases were beyond us due to the rules of the service, will be affected.

“But we interceded for the affected officers to ensure that they were not prosecuted or even made to refund the money they earned during their stay in service,” he said.