The Ondo State Government has suspended three senior officials of the State Universal Basic Education Board following their alleged role in a teacher recruitment scam.
The affected officers, two directors and a deputy director, were accused of colluding with outsiders to extort money from job seekers by issuing fake appointment and posting letters.
Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa ordered their immediate suspension and directed a full investigation into the matter. He also instructed SUBEB management to meet with the defrauded applicants, many of whom recently staged a protest in Akure after being excluded from the state’s biometric verification exercise for newly recruited teachers.
During the protest, the applicants said they had been denied access to the verification exercise despite holding appointment letters. Officials later discovered that the letters were forged.
In a statement issued by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Ebenezer Adeniyan, the government explained that over 2,000 teachers legitimately recruited had already resumed duties in schools across the state, and none of the protesters were among them.
“The attention of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has been drawn to reports of a protest by individuals claiming to have been denied employment during the recent recruitment of teachers by the Ondo State Government through the State Universal Basic Education Board,” the statement read.
“To clarify, those who protested were not employed teachers but applicants defrauded by scammers who issued fake employment and posting letters after collecting money from them. These defrauded applicants were identified during the biometric verification process and informed that their letters were fake. Already, disciplinary action has been taken against three SUBEB insiders who allegedly colluded with external individuals to defraud the applicants,” it added.
The government further announced that a committee had been set up to probe the scandal, while disciplinary measures would follow based on the outcome of the investigation.
