Oni urges Fayemi to obey court order, reinstate dismissed workers

The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Segun Oni, has called for the immediate reinstatement of some workers of the Ekiti State University (EKSU) allegedly sacked by the Governor Kayode Fayemi administration in 2019.

Recall that the management of the EKSU had on December 5, 2019, disengaged over 900 of its workforce for alleged certificate forgery, irregular appointment and overage, among other sundry allegations.

The disengaged EKSU staff subsequently dragged the university authority to the National Industrial Court (NIC) in Akure and got a judgment nullifying their sack. However, the university authority was yet to obey the court judgment.

Some of the affected workers had also approached the Court of Appeal Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, which recently ordered the reinstatement of the disengaged staff.

Giving the judgment, Justice Tunde Awotoye also gave the university a 30-day ultimatum to pay the reinstated workers their salaries, emoluments and allowances from the date of their unlawful disengagement to date.

The court also directed the university to pay the workers the three months salary they were being owed before they were unlawfully disengaged.

Speaking yesterday on the development through his Director of Media, Mr. Jackson Adebayo, Oni said the government should obey the judgment of the court and immediately reinstate the workers.

He noted that a government that prides itself on democratic should not disobey the judgment of a court of law.

According to him, the workers had been subjected to untold hardship with their families, who bear the consequence of the unjust action of government.

Oni, who noted that government was a continuum, wondered why Fayemi would lay off workers employed by former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administrations in the state.

He alleged that the administration sacked the workers for no other reason but politics.

The SDP governorship candidate, therefore, promised workers in the state that none of them would suffer unjustly if he becomes the governor of the state.