Group seeks recall of sacked Ogun workers

GOVERNOR Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State should show leadership and uphold his oath of office by immediately reinstating the “unjustly” sacked education officials instead of shifting responsibility to the state Civil Service Commission, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has said.

SERAP’s position yesterday followed Amosun’s condemnation of the group last week for petitioning the United Nations (UN) special rapporteurs on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and to education following the sack of six civil servants over alleged offensive comprehensive summary passage.

The state government had further shifted responsibility for their sack to the Civil Service Commission in an attempt to exonerate Amosun. It also accused SERAP of “jumping the gun and crying more than the bereaved,” wondering whether it had studied the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in relation to disciplinary control of civil servants.

However, the SERAP Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, said in a statement: “We are disappointed that Governor Amosun’s response offers little in terms of showing leadership and decisively dealing with the unjust and unfair sack of education officials under his watch for simply exercising their constitutional and internationally recognised human rights.

“Impartiality of the public service doesn’t mean that civil servants have to give up their views or national perspectives. It is difficult to see how the governor can purport to be fulfilling even the most basic aspects of his oath of office and duty to the people of Ogun State if he turns the other way from a clear case of injustice against the sacked education officials.”

According to the organisation, “the acts or omissions of the Civil Service Commission crucially engage the responsibility of the government of Ogun State in so far as they raise issues in respect of constitutional rights and the fulfillment of the country’s international human rights obligations and commitments, as it is clearly the case in the unjust sack of the education officials.”