Three senior officials have been suspended by the Ondo State Government for allegedly participating in a recruitment scam related to the state’s recent hiring of teachers.
Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa ordered the suspension of the impacted officials—two directors and a deputy director—pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation into the job racketeering scandal.
According to reports, the officials allegedly obtained, in exchange for phony appointment letters, between N500,000 and N700,000 from gullible applicants, depending on their academic credentials.
After a number of people protested their exclusion from the ongoing biometric verification process for newly hired teachers, the issue gained public attention. Many of the demonstrators had presented forged appointment documents, according to subsequent investigations.
The government clarified that the irate demonstrators were not part of the more than 2,000 teachers who had been lawfully recruited and deployed throughout the state in a statement released by Prince Ebenezer Adeniyan, the governor’s chief press secretary.
According to Adeniyan, internal investigations verified that the three State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) officials had conspired with outside partners to provide phony posting and appointment letters to unwary applicants in return for cash.
Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has taken notice of reports of a protest by people who say they were wrongfully left out of the SUBEB hiring process.
To be clear, those demonstrators were not actual workers; rather, they were deceitful individuals who had paid con artists to receive fictitious letters. They were told that their documents were invalid and exposed during biometric verification.
“The three SUBEB insiders who were discovered to have colluded with outsiders to defraud applicants have already been subject to disciplinary action,” Adeniyan said.
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