The Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, has reinstated about 1,000 local government workers his government sacked last year.
The governor said he had also waived the outcome of the last promotion examination conducted for workers in the state.
The 1,000 workers were laid off because the Ondo State government said it discovered that their employment was illegal.
A statement by the state’s Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade, on Thursday indicated that the workers, about 50 in each of the 18 local government areas in the state, had been reinstated and the irregularities in their employment process corrected.
The statement added that Mimiko had approved promotion of every worker that was due for promotion, irrespective of their performance in the promotional examination already conducted.
The statement read, “The state government has re -absorbed and properly employed about 1,000 local government workers identified to have been illegally employed during the last screening exercise in the state.
“About 50 workers from each of the 18 local government areas in the state were discovered during the last screening exercise to have been employed illegally and were consequently laid off.
“Governor Olusegun Mimiko has however graciously ordered the re-instatement of the affected workers and their employment perfected. The governor has also ordered the promotion of workers due for promotion to the next level of their career without recourse to the result of the promotional examination earlier conducted for the same purpose.”
The information commissioner further said that the state government had decided to commence preparation for the conduct of local government election in the state “as soon as the state assembly election is done with on Saturday.”
The Mimiko’s administration had in 2014 embarked on a staff audit during which the government said it discovered that the councils had been engaged in illegal recruitment of workers.
The state government also said salaries were being paid to non-existent workers.
In the build-up to the 2015 general elections, Mimiko had promised that elections would be conducted to the 18 local councils in the state after the general polls. (Punch).