The governor of Ondo state, Rotimi Akeredolu has just terminated the appointment of nine permanent secretaries in the state civil service, forcing them to go into compulsory retirement. It was reported that the civil servants had been given the retirement letters since Monday, while insisting that the governor did this in a bid to order to pave way for his ‘anointed’ candidate to succeed the current Head of Service, Mr Toyin Akinkuotu, who was said to be going on retirement in August 2019.
One of the affected who chose to speak under anonymity said;
“He (the governor) retired nine of us (permanent secretaries) because the governor wants an Owo indigene to become the next state Head of Service and the person is junior to some of us, the affected permanent secretaries. That is unfair.” In a reaction to this news, the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Yemi Olowolabi, said;
“There is an extant circular to that effect, that any permanent secretary who has served for more than eight years could be retired either reaching retirement age or not and the least of the affected permanent secretaries had spent nine years in the office.
So the governor did not give the order to favour anybody. The affected permanent secretaries were not sacked but they were called for a meeting where they were told to retire voluntarily.”
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