Ogun Suspends 1,024 Teachers For Certificate Forgery

The Ogun State Government said on Wednesday that no fewer than 1,024 teachers in the state found to have gained employment into the state Teaching Service with forged certificates had been suspended.
The state government said some of the suspended teachers were also found to have engaged in other irregularities.

The suspended teachers were among the 6, 531 out of the 19, 154 earlier screened by a firm of consultants, CITC Consulting, which verified the statement of results and attestation letters from over 50 higher institutions across the country submitted by the teachers.

A final report submitted to the government indicated that 475 teachers were suspended for possessing forged certificates and not having their attestation letters confirmed by the institutions from which they claimed to have obtained them.

About 274 others also came under the hammer for not appearing for the screening.
Two hundred and thirty six teachers were suspended for “being outright unqualified” while 12 were axed for exceeding the statutory length of service.

Eleven others were affected by the suspension order for discrepancies discovered in their age while 14 were discovered to have died long ago.

Two of the suspended teachers were also discovered to be “impostors”.

Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Chief Mufutau Ajibola, said the suspension of the teachers was with immediate effect pending the formal determination of their cases by the panel established in the Office of the Head of Service.

Ajibola added that the forged documents the suspended teachers submitted were being compiled for presentation to the state Police Command for possible criminal prosecution of those indicted during the exercise.

The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Segun Odubela, had earlier said the exercise was “about quality assurance of our human capital”.