Kaduna sacks 65 ‘illegally recruited teachers’

The Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) on Friday confirmed the sack of 65 primary school teachers, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

They were allegedly recruited illegally in Sanga Local Government Area of the state.

SUBEB’s Auditor, Tandat Katuma, who served as the secretary of the investigation committee, confirmed the development to NAN in Kaduna.

The council’s chairman, Charles Danladi, had on Wednesday announced the sack of the teachers to journalists in Gwantu, the council headquarters.

Mr Danladi alleged that the anomaly was detected through the over-bloated wage bill of the teachers, which kept increasing every month without new employment.

To this effect, an alarm was raised.

He said Mr Danladi raised the alarm during the state’s Joint Account Committee Meeting, being chaired by the deputy governor and that SUBEB was asked to investigate the allegation.

“After our investigation, we confirmed that 65 teachers were illegally recruited in the area.

“Their appointments have been terminated.

“You will recall that in 2017, the Kaduna State Government had organised a competency test for primary school teachers.

“About 22,000 of the teachers failed the test and were sacked.

“Our investigation uncovered that 16 out of the 65 were among the primary school teachers that failed the competency test in the LGA but were illegally reappointed.

“The remaining 51 were illegally recruited during the first and second batches of the recruitment of 25,000 qualified teachers that replaced those sacked across the state,’’ Mr Katuma told NAN.

The auditor added that SUBEB official involved in the illegal recruitment exercise had been sanctioned.

(NAN)