Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Ayodele Fayose yesterday signed the
\ndocuments directing the Accountant General of the state to immediately
\nrefund monies inadvertently over-deducted from the salaries of
\nteachers who had bought some facilities from government during the
\npreviuos administration of Ex-Governor Kayode Fayemi, now Minister of
\nSolid Minerals Development.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, teachers had bought cars and laptops among other
\nfacilities from government on loan with an arrangement for monthly
\ninstallment deductions from their salaries.<\/p>\n
According the Ekiti State chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers
\n(NUT) , Comrade Samuel Akosile, the over-deductions from the teachers’
\nsalaries has been a perennial problem but when brought to the notice
\nof Governor Fayose, he promptly set up a committee to look into the
\ncomplaints and gave them an ultimatum of 30 days to bring their
\nreport.<\/p>\n
The report and its recommendations were submitted to the governor
\nyesterday at Osuntokun hall of the government office, Ado-Ekiti, state
\ncapital.<\/p>\n
Signing the report and its recommendation and directing the
\naccountant General to ensure the refund to reflect in the teachers’
\nSeptember salaries, Fayose said: “There have been complaints of
\nover-deductions in terms of facilities they have enjoyed such as
\nlaptop, car loans and others. The teachers have paid for these
\nfacilities but deductions is still being made. And a proper system
\nthat is functioning is not supposed to be like that.<\/p>\n
The system I inhertied has not been functioning and I have to put a
\ncommittee in place because these are complaints that are germane to
\nthe well being of the teachers. The committee sat and listened to them
\nand over 10 million Naira over-deduction was discovered.<\/p>\n
Though, some are just N2000, others are N5000 while the highest may
\nbe N50,000. But to the teachers N2000, N5000 is a lot of money,
\nespecially in times like this.<\/p>\n
And if they still have complaints after the end of this month wehn I
\nhave directed that the deductions be refunded, this committee will
\nstill be around to listen to them.”<\/p>\n
The governor who was also commended for promptly approving the grant
\nto principals in the state, also commented on his readiness to pay the
\nbacklog of 2014 primary teachers’ leave bonus.<\/p>\n
He said: “The people voted for me because they were convinced I could solve
\ntheir problems. I can’t continue to blame it on the past
\nadministration because the people wouldn’t have voted them out if they
\nstill want them. It is now my responsibility and I’ve risen up to the
\nchallenge.”<\/p>\n
Fayose who has started the process of giving full autonomy to local
\ngovernments in the state, harped on the need for state governments to
\nrespect the constitution that created the third tiers of government,
\nadding that governors should not subvert these laws with their
\nexecutive powers, he said:”The law is the law and you can’t change it.
\nLocal government creation and all that guides its creation is
\nentrenched in the constitution of Nigeria. It is only in Nigeria that
\nwill a lot of things to subvert the law because we have executive
\npowers. So, whatever is in the constitution should be obeyed. Autonomy
\nof the local government must be adhered to in Ekiti and I will review
\nthe laws regulating their operations through the state House of
\nAssembly. and strengthen them to be able to manage their affairs. The
\nmanagement of their resources must be left to them.”<\/p>\n
Responding to governor Fayose’s handling of the issue of the
\nteachers’ over-deduction. Akosile said: “This problem you have laid to
\nrest has been on since the time e-payment was introduced into the
\nstate. For you to have taken the bull by the horn and solved this
\nperennial problem once and for all we pray that God will bless you and
\nstrengthen. You are already raising the hopes of the teachers. We also
\nwant to thank you for having started paying the outstanding salaries
\nof primary school teachers. N200,000 million has been raised on this
\nso far. “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Ayodele Fayose yesterday signed the documents directing the Accountant General of the state to immediately refund monies inadvertently over-deducted from the salaries of teachers who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n