OSUN APC, PDP TRADE WORDS OVER ADELEKE’S DEPLOYMENT OF 1,750 AD-HOC TEACHERS

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By: Sefiu Ajape

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has criticised Governor Ademola Adeleke for endangering the future of pupils in public primary and secondary schools by deploying 1,750 members of the Imole Corps as teachers.

In a statement issued by its spokesperson, Kola Olabisi, and obtained in Osogbo on Wednesday, the APC described the use of ad-hoc teachers as a sign of confusion within the Adeleke-led administration.

Responding to the criticism, the Osun People’s Democratic Party (PDP) defended the move, calling it a temporary measure ahead of the planned recruitment of qualified teachers.

However, the APC maintained that the deployment of “untrained ad-hoc teachers to public schools” reflects the government’s misplaced priorities nearly three years into its four-year term.

The release read partly, “For God’s sake, it defies logic how a government that is constructing five needless flyovers with billions of naira, purchased multi-million naira vehicles for the unproductive members of his cabinet with billions of naira to feed in the Government House could have the liver to announce to the public that it is posting 1,750 untrained teachers to public schools in the state.

“There is no doubt the fact that Governor Adeleke has lost focus, and he has confirmed beyond reasonable doubt with his actions and inactions in the public office that he does not have what it takes to govern a complex state like Osun.

“The genuine stakeholders in the Osun State project should see this strange policy of Governor Adeleke as a collective calamity in the educational sector, which should be condemned in its entirety.

“What will happen to the thousands of teacher-applicants who had been interviewed and were expecting to resume at their different schools in the state without luck?”

The PDP, while responding, blamed the inability to conclude recruitment of new teachers, on the withholding of allocations for local government areas in Osun in the last five months, calling on the APC-led Federal Government to release revenue due to the LGs.

The party, in a release signed by its spokesperson, Oladele Bamiji, said, “APC-led Federal Government withheld Osun local government allocations as a failed ploy to stop the various developmental projects being executed by the current administration, warning that teachers’ recruitment was one of the targeted areas by the APC alongside the many ongoing mega projects.

“The deployed Ad-hoc teachers were trained and they work under the supervision of older teachers.

“APC should release Osun allocation being withheld illegally so that the state government can fulfil its obligations to Osun people.

“We are using this medium to report to Osun people that APC is hellbent on stopping Osun development.

“The PDP government will not allow them. Osun must develop whether APC likes it or not. Osun must escape cycle of under-development.”

Declaring that voters will punish Osun APC for alleged inhuman treatment of the people, Bamiji queried, “What sin have Osun people committed to warrant withholding of their allocations without any legal basis?”

He continued, “Osun people will vote for PDP and defend their votes next year in August.”