The Borno State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC ) has denied the state government’s dismissal of 6000 teachers. Speaking to journalists yesterday in Maiduguri, the State NLC Chairman, Comrade Bulama Abiso, stated that, contrary to rumors of sacking, the state government only formed a committee to verify teachers at the local government level.

He mentioned that, as far as the NLC in the state is concerned, no teacher has been sacked because no letter with a justification for sacking has been given to any of them. According to our correspondent, Governor Babagana Umara Zulum recently established the Teachers’ Verification Committee to verify the status of teachers on the payroll of the 27 local government areas, and the committee checked and presented their report, where over 6000 teachers have been designated as ghost teachers

However, the NLC Chairman went on to say that the affected teachers with irregularities were not fired, and that it was the committee’s recommendation that was enforced, as well as the suspension of certain teachers’ salaries.

” So now, we actually had an audience with Governor Zulum who directed the committee that did the work to review the position to ensure that justice is done to everyone that appears before it. ” So currently, the Committee has started working and they have started looking into the issue. Already, Askira- Uba, Bama and Abadam local government teachers have already appeared before the committee and the issue has been looked into. ” So if a civil servant should be sacked, he should be sacked with a reason and a letter stating the reason. For now, nobody has been sacked and if the Committee finds out that their implementation was in error, salary arrears of the affected teachers will be cleared, ” Abiso said.