Thousands of workers, whose appointments were described as inappropriate and thus voided on Wednesday, have described the decision of government as inappropriate and unacceptable.
The Adamawa State Executive Council (SEC) had at its weekly meeting on Wednesday approved a White Paper, which faulted the controversial appointments and recommended that the appointees be dropped.
The state Commissioner for Information & Strategy, Dr Umar Garba, had said after the SEC meeting that government’s decision to reverse the controversial appointments was informed by irregularities surrounding the appointments.
The affected workers are, however, boiling for action, threatening street protest and a court process to “press for justice.”
Spokesperson of the workers, Faisal Baba, confirming the development to newsmen on Friday, said, “We are now holding a marathon meeting over the unjust action, and we have resolved to commence street protest on Feb 10, 2020, to demand justice.”
He added that apart from the street protest, “we shall also file litigation against the injustice being meted to us by the government.”
According to him, over 5,000 workers were affected by the recent government’s decision, which he said was carried out without due process.
“The government neither followed due process nor civil service rule in taking the misplaced decision. We were not told why we were penciled down for the sack and no investigation was carried before the unfortunate action was taken in contravention of the civil service rules,” he said.
Such grounds for the planned protest raise fresh controversy, considering government’s assertion that it chose the sack option by implementing a White Paper produced from due investigation of the circumstances around the controversial appointments.
The workers would however draw much substance when it comes to demanding their salaries which were stopped several months before the formal decision of the government to terminate their appointments.
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri had been quick to question the appointments upon becoming governor in May 2019. He had said the appointments were made by the government of his predecessor, Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow, just before the end of the tenure of that government without due regard to civil service rules, for which reason the appointments could not stand, but he did not take the definite move of formally relieving the affected workers of their jobs.
Faisal noted in his interaction with newsmen Friday that despite not giving them sack letters, the state government refused to pay them salaries in the last 10 months.
The announcement of their sack Wednesday and the question of the unpaid salaries would thus be expected to form the major planks on which their planned protest and legal action would stand.
