What many described as drama of the century took place yesterday morning at the Rivers State Liberation Stadium, Elekahia, when several indigenes of Rivers State converged at the stadium in the guise of giving posting letters to the newly recruited teachers.
The crowd at the stadium were dispersed by the Rivers State command of the Nigeria police saying that it was a political gathering that could not hold without clearance.
Five lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly has it that it was another avenue perpetrated by the Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi to stage a protest against the presidency in the state.
The lawmakers are calling on the government of Rivers State to explain motives behind the gathering without informing the police.
Meanwhile, the permanent secretary in the ministry of Education, Dr. Richard Ofuru had confirmed that the police was not aware of their gathering, claiming that the previous interviews were conducted at the main bowl of the Alfred Diette-Spiff Civic Centre without informing the police but wondered why the police should see the exercise at the Liberation Stadium as having political motives.
He said the ministry will seek alternative means of giving out the posting letters to the newly recruited teachers.
It could be recalled that the Ministry had earlier given appointment letters to successful applicants of the teaching job, several weeks ago and even made it public on bill boards at the various model schools across the state.
The question on the lips of Rivers indigenes is what happed to the process which was used during the issuance of appointment letters?
A supposed beneficiary of the posting letter, one Mr. Obediah Obediah who called from the stadium at the scene accused the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP led by Hon. Felix Obuah of have masterminding the police action against the job seekers.
While fielding questions from ‘The Newswriter, Mr. Obediah denied his accusation, but wondered why the state ministry could not use the same process it used during the issuance of appointment letters for the distribution of posting letters if it is free of political motive.
The State Ministry of Education was earlier accused of playing politics with the recruitment of 13,000 teachers whereas it was only about 5,000 that were actually recruited.
A reliable source within the Ministry has it that the ministry had published names of about 7,000 applicants out of the over 13,000 applications received and initially published.
It also went further to clarify that, of the 7,000 short listed as successful applicants only about 5,000 were later chosen and issued the appointment letters.###
James Mgboinem
