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Tag: Bayelsa State

  • Police shielding killers of my son- deceased father

    Police shielding killers of my son- deceased father

    Daniel Kokorifa, the father of Innocent, the 17-year-old boy allegedly killed by policemen in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, on Monday, accused the police of trying to shield the police team that killed his son.

    He cried that since his son was gunned down by the police on August 18, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Adeyemi Ogunjemilusi, had yet to visit his family and commiserate with them.

    The aggrieved father said in an era of change under President Muhammadu Buhari, the police had demonstrated the same impunity which the current administration said it had come to change, in the case of his son’s alleged extra-judicial killing.

    Kokorifa was shot dead in mysterious circumstances by the Anti-Vice/Anti-Kidnapping team of the Bayelsa police command along the Air force Road.

    The son was said to be running an errand for his mother, Pere, when he was killed in mysterious circumstances by the policemen who deposited his remains at the mortuary  of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yenagoa.

    The father of the deceased, an officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) insisted that his first child out of five children was murdered in cold blood.

    He said the victim who was to turn 18 on 9th of September was a peacemaker, a non-smoker who had no records of criminality.

    “We are talking about my first son that I invested so much on and was preparing him to live his dream of becoming a lawyer. The police snatched him away from me in an unprofessional manner. Yet, there is no sympathy from the police. They are not handling the matter very well. It seems they want to deny me and my dead son justice.

    “I heard that the particular persons who shot my son was arrested and taken to Zone 5 in Benin. I have not confirmed because there is no official channel communicating to me. The police must show transparency in the handling of this case so that the law will take its full course”, the father said.

    He said in the spirits of transparency, the identities of members of the police team that shot and killed his son should be made public.

    “We have been mourning since this incident happened. We can’t stop mourning Innocent because we love him so much. My wife has been a shadow of herself and my other children are still thinking that one day their big brother will come home. What we demand is justice”, he said.

    The murder of Kokorifa has attracted deluge of criticisms against the police from members of the public.

    Hundreds of youths, women and activists at the weekend trooped to the streets of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, to protest the alleged extra-judicial killing of a 17-year-old Ijaw youth, Master Innocent Kokorifa.

    But the police in a statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Butswat Asinim, said the victim died in a gun battle between a three-man notorious armed robbery gang and the police squad.

    Aggrieved youths and activists took off from the NUJ Secretariat, Azikoro Road and marched towards police command headquarters but were stopped by the police at the Onopa axis of the Mbiama-Yenagoa road.

    They displayed placards and banners with inscriptions, “police are to protect lives and properties, not to kill innocent citizens”, not every Bayelsa youth is a criminal”, police, please stop the killings”, “we say no to police brutality and many others.

     

  • Military arrests soldiers’ killers in Bayelsa 

    Military arrests soldiers’ killers in Bayelsa 

    ***Recover stolen gunboat, weapons 
    Joint Military Task Force (JTF), Operation Delta Safe (ODS), has arrested militants who killed soldiers at a military checkpoint in Nembe, Bayelsa State.
    The troops also recovered military gunboats, arms and ammunition carted away by the militants during the ambush.
  • Militants kill three soldiers in Bayelsa

    Militants kill three soldiers in Bayelsa

    Militants disguised in white-mourning outfits, on Monday morning, killed three soldiers at a checkpoint located in Nembe waterways, Nembe, Bayelsa State and stole two gunboats

     

    Details later.

  • NUC approves new Bayelsa’s varsity in Dickson’s village

    NUC approves new Bayelsa’s varsity in Dickson’s village

    The National University Commission (NUC) has approved the University of Africa (UA), Toru-Orua, the community of the Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, as the 43rd state university in the country.

    Its approval was reportedly followed the formal presentation of the relevant gazette law, academic brief, physical master plan and the report of the advisory assessment visit by the commission.

    The UA, Toru-Orua, is said to be an initiative of the Bayelsa State Government expected to run as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) project.

    The state government is required to only provide the enabling environment, while the financing would reportedly come from the private sector.

    The NUC was said to have given its nod for the university in a letter dated July 28, 2016.

    According to a statement signed by Dickson’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, congratulated the state government.

    He noted that, the establishment of the university took effect from the 28th of July, having complied with the basic requirements adding that the AU is also the 143rd in the Nigerian university system.

    In the statement, Iworiso-Markson, said Dickson led a delegation of top government officials to the office of the commission in Abuja and were received by executive secretary, who briefed the governor on the latest development and the approval of the university.

    The statement disclosed that, Okojie handed over the letter of approval to Dickson during the visit, and commended him for the initiative.

    In his remarks, Dickson thanked Okojie for the warm reception accorded him and his team, explaining that, the AU, Toru-Orua was conceived as a public private partnership.

    He said it was designed as a first rate institution of learning that would also attract some of the best teachers from Africa and the world.

    He said the university would be funded by its partners and the government would only provide the enabling environment for its establishment.

    Dickson said, there was need for more fee-paying private universities to be established adding that it was the only way to make funding of tertiary institutions viable and sustainable.

    He said: “I am here leading this small delegation to present to you these laws passed by the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, establishing a new university that we want to bring about working with the private sector. It will be run on a PPP basis.

    “It is a University unlike the existing one, it will not be directly funded by the state. Our belief is that moving forward for a university to be sustainable, we must create room for private sector participation and involvement.

    “The University of Africa, Toru-Orua, is the first of its kind in this country, that is established by government with private sector involvement and it will be strictly a fee paying tertiary institution that will attract students from across the continent and the globe. It will be the model as we encourage more private universities in this country.”

  • Avengers are within your government, IYC tells Buhari

    Avengers are within your government, IYC tells Buhari

    • Says Lagos militants, avengers are not Ijaw people

    The umbrella body of Ijaw youths, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Worldwide, on Thursday, told President Muhammadu Buhari that members of the militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) were within his government.

    The President of IYC, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, who briefed the press at the Headquarters of the council in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, also lamented constant linkage of avengers and criminals in Lagos State to Ijaw people.

    Eradiri advised President Buhari to begin the search for avengers within his government insisting that members of the militant group were in Aso Rock villa.

    He wondered why the military was laying siege in Gbaramatu Kingdom for members of NDA whom he said were not in the community.

    He said: “Why are they always quick to attack our communities. Gbaramatu is not the headquarters of avengers. It does not habour any avenger. Do you think that the community people are happy that they are under siege and cannot go about their normal duties?

    “The more they are doing this thing, the more Ijaw people will begin to come together and we will never be divided. The government should stop harassing our people.

    “The NDA is within them. They know themselves. They are blocking the President left, right and centre so that he would not see them. The NDA is with him and his people there”.

    Eradiri also insisted that the Ijaw people were not behind the violent attacks on communities in Lagos and Ogun states by militants regretting that some people deliberately ascribed such criminalities to Ijaw to cause ethnic war between Ijaw and their Yoruba neighbours.

    He asked the security agencies to do their job by flushing out the perpetrators of Lagos violence and stop making public statements that could create ethnic tension.

    He said: “There are some groups in Lagos engaged in criminal activities and those activities are now threatening the brotherly relationship our people have enjoyed in Lagos.

    “First, Nigeria should stop ascribing anything that happened in the Niger Delta to Ijaw people. For the avoidance of doubt, Niger Delta Avengers are not Ijaw people. I am tired of answering questions about Niger Delta Avengers.

    “I am the President of the Ijaw Youth Council. I am not the President of NDA. NDA are not Ijaw people. We don’t know who Niger Delta Avengers are. If the security agencies know avengers, they should arrest them. They should do their jobs.

    “They should stop transferring their jobs to community leaders or youth Organisations or leaders of ethnic nationalities. Their duty is to maintain law and order, to gather intelligence and do whatever they deem fit to ensure that there is peace in the country.

    “Please stop ascribing negative things to Ijaw people. We are the fourth largest ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and I agree that we are the people who refuse to eat sand and call it food. But that does not mean that every little thing that happens in the region will be ascribed to Ijaw people”.

    Eradiri said the Lagos issue has assumed a worrisome dimension adding that all the criminal activities in communities hosting the Arepo Atlas Cove pipelines in Lagos and Ogun States were being perpetrated by thieves who were out to enrich themselves.

    He said there is widespread economic crimes along pipelines in the country and that the Lagos scenario involved people from all the ethnic groups.

    He said: “So, Nigerians should stop ascribing it to Ijaw people. Ijaw people are peace-loving people. For over hundreds of years, our people have cohabited with other ethnic nationalities. We have never been known to be hostile people.

    “We sympathise with families that have lost their lives especially during the Ogun-Arepo crisis. As much as our hearts grieve with the affected families, we want to say that the aggressors are not Ijaw people. They are common criminals who are stealing refined products for economic reasons.

    “Therefore, the police and other security agencies that are sustained by taxpayers money should go and do their job. It beats our imagination when a police commissioner will stand up publicly to ascribe such crimes to ethnic nationality.

    “However, whichever way we can assist to resolve the issues in Lagos, we are willing to support. But the problem is snowballing into crisis between Ijaws and Yorubas and that is why we are concerned.

    “We will not support any negative thing that will be done to destabilise Lagos and its environs because our people are peaceful and law-abiding. We appeal to the Yoruba community, all those who are fanning the ambers of ethnic crisis should stop it. There are some individuals who are behind it and any little thing that happens they want to ascribe it.

    “This is just to build bad blood against our people. The government should be very vigilant because just on Wednesday, properties of the Ijaws were destroyed within the outskirts of Lagos because of media propaganda against our ethnic nationality”.

    He added: “We appeal to the Yoruba people; don’t allow yourselves to be used by people because they just want to create conflict. Conflict in Lagos will never help any of us. We still remember the injuries that were inflicted upon both sides during the OPC, Ijaw crisis.

    “Go back and investigate the issues, you will be amazed that one nonsense matter that has no bearing that caused it. Yoruba nation must know that we are their brothers. We share the same aspirations.

    “Ijaws will not sit down and said lets go and destroy Lagos. Lagos share the same terrain with us and we cannot destroy our home because we see Lagos as home.

    “We see Ogun as home. Let’s not be deceived into an unnecessary conflict. The security agencies are to be blamed. They should go and do their jobs. The waterways should be policed properly”.

  • Bayelsa teachers in terrible condition – NUT

    Bayelsa teachers in terrible condition – NUT

    The national leadership of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Wednesday, described the plight of teachers in Bayelsa State, where the government declared emergency in education, as “pitiable and pathetic”.

    The angry leaders made the observation at a press conference on Wednesday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, after a two-day consultative meeting with its state chapter.

    The President, Mr. Michael Olukoya, lamented that months of unpaid salaries of teachers left them in the throes of untold hardship.

    Olukoya, said the national executive of the union came to specifically meet with the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson over the plight of teachers, but were told the governor was not available.

    He, however, appealed to the state government to pay teachers their salaries.

    He said: “The working condition of teachers here in Bayelsa is pathetic. The state of workers is nothing to write home about. Despite their working conditions, we commend the teachers for allowing maturity, peace, concord and amity to prevail.

    “We have come here to plead with Governor Seriake Dickson that teachers should be paid their salaries.  Look at the terrain of Bayelsa State, we have some communities that it will take some hours before you can get there. It costs money and what have you. So, we are appealing to Dickson to pay the salaries of our members.

    “Next to issue of unpaid salaries is the issue of minimum wage or consolidated arrears.  We stand to be challenged. We appeal that the government should not just take teachers for a ride.

    “Every category of workers in Bayelsa State have been paid these arears except the teachers. Teachers, mother of all professions, why are you treating them like this? So, we want to appeal to the government of Bayelsa State that this minimum wage or consolidated arrears that have eluded teachers should be paid to them.

    “If not because we have not met with the governor, we would have left back a word and you know what that means,  but we know him as a gentleman and his love for education. We believe the governor will do the needful.

    “So, our members should not be made the sacrificial lamb: what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. We are insisting that our members should be paid those salary arrears.”

    On primary school management, Olukoya contended that there is a subsisting Supreme Court judgment that ruled that local governments should only participate in the running of the affairs of primary schools.

    He noted that there was no council in Nigeria that could effectively and satisfactorily run primary school education.

    He added: “We are told that here in Bayelsa, primary school management has now been given to the LGAs. We are not here to tell his Excellency how to run the state,  but we are saying it as practitioners, as managers that it can never have good result. The LG as being experienced here cannot give a satisfactory mode of education.

    “Do not forget, primary school is a foundation and if we want to say no to all the social ills in the country, call it Boko Haram, militancy, etc, we must not toy with the foundation – primary school.

    “So, we want to appeal to the government of the state not to relinquish primary school management to local government.  As we speak, LG has started lying off workers.

    “We shall come back to plead with the governor that the idea of saying because there is no money, primary school is now the function of councils will not work.”

    Olukoya called on the state government not to accord recognition to a body that calls itself ‘the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools’, saying that it was not known to the law as a trade union.

    He said according recognition to ASUSS was an aberration, encouragement of hooliganism and antithetical to the interest of the education sector.

  • Assassins butcher Bayelsa monarch with machetes

    Assassins butcher Bayelsa monarch with machetes

    The paramount ruler of Oluasiri, Nembe Local Government Area, Bayelsa state, Chiefson Awululu, was on Tuesday attacked with machetes by suspected assassins in his house in Yenagoa, the state capital.

    It was gathered that Awululu, whose ascendancy to the throne generated many controversies, has survived many attempts to remove him by some people in his community.

    The suspected assassins reportedly scaled the fence of the traditional ruler in Otitio, Yenagoa, by 2.30 am and smashed a burglary proof door into his bedroom.

    They were said to have inflicted deep multiple machete cuts on him before leaving him for dead.

    The hoodlums were said to have returned later at about 5 am, to confirm if he was indeed dead, but discovered that he had been rushed to the hospital.

    It was learnt that the assailants ostensibly hit their target with the intention to kill him.

    Sources said that there were deep machete cuts which almost removed the monarch’s right shoulder and another targeted cut to his jaw which left him in the pool of his own blood.

    The room where the monarch was reportedly attacked was said to have been soaked in blood.

    Some elders and indigenes of the Oluasiri were said to have passed April this year a vote of no confidence in the attacked monarch in April over allegations of poor leadership, absenteeism and administering the community from outside.

    He was reportedly accused of failing to maintain peace in the community, administering the community like a sole administrator and alleged illegal constitution of the Oluasiri Development Union (ODU) and the Oluasiri Youth Federation(OYF).

    However, the police in Bayelsa described the incident as an armed robbery attack saying that the suspects took some cash from the monarch.

    The police spokesman in the state,  Mr Asinim Butswat, noted in a statement issued in Yenagoa that the attackers were there in their number, adding that the monarch had been rushed to the hospital.

    He said: “On the 19 July, 2016 at about 0315hrs, three men armed with machetes went to the residence of One Chiefson Iyerite Awululu, the paramount ruler of Oluasiri, at Otiotio Road, Yenagoa.

    “ (They) cut off the burglary proof, stole #9,000 and wounded the King with the machetes.

    “The victim was taken to the hospital and he is responding to treatment. Efforts have been intensified to arrest the fleeing suspects. Investigation is ongoing”

  • NUT begs Dickson to pay teachers’ salaries

    NUT begs Dickson to pay teachers’ salaries

    The Bayelsa State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) Saturday passionately begged the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, to pay salaries of primary school teachers.

    Teachers, like other workers in the state, have been thrown into hardship following the non-payment of about six months salaries owed them by the government.

    Speaking in Yenagoa, the state capital, the Principal Secretary, NUT, Mr. Okoro Okechukwu and the state Chairman, NUT, Mr. Bokolo Tonworio, asked the governor to take responsibility for the welfare of teachers including regularly paying their salaries.

    Okechukwu said the law in Nigeria prescribes that the maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education should be the responsibility of the state government.

    He said it was unconstitutional for any state government to allow only the local government to decide the fate of teachers.

    He said the fourth schedule of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution stated that the local government “shall only participate” in catering for teachers, which he said gave the state the main responsibility of funding the sub-sector.

    He said: “Then in May 2002, the Supreme Court gave a verdict in the case of the Attorney-General of Abia State, and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

    “The court said ‘on the tier of government responsible for primary education, in so far as primary education is concerned, a local council only participates with the state government, in its provision and maintenance. The functions obviously remains with the state government’.

    “The provision of this judgement of the Supreme Court is still the position of the law till tomorrow, and what the Supreme Court merely did was to interpret a section of the provision of the fourth scheduled that it remains the functions of the state government.

    “Therefore, it is wrong for any state government to heap the burden of funding primary education upon the local government councils”.

    Speaking about Bayelsa scenario, he said: “In our case in Bayelsa, the local councils lack or are already showing or exhibiting the incapacity to pay their workers and if our primary schools teacher are pushed down to the already erring local council, it means there is no future, no hope, and that the case of primary school teacher in Bayelsa becomes a helpless situation.

    “That is why we are appealing on the executive Governor Dickson who knows the laws better than I do, to do all he can to make sure that the burden is not heaped on the local councils alone.

    “As it is done in other states, let the state and local council jointly participate obeying the constitution in the funding of primary education so that the primary education to the citizenry is guaranteed and the welfare and the monthly regular salary of the teacher who teach in Bayelsa will be assured”.

    Also, speaking on the matter, Tonworio, appealed to the governor to toe the path of other states in carrying primary school teachers along.

    He said the primary school education remains the bedrock of education and asked the state not to destroy the sub-sector.

    He said: “Where the primary education is destroyed, the future of Bayelsa State is destroyed and that is why we are at the level we are today. All along, he has been carrying them along, so whatever must have transpired, let the governor reconsider and carry the Bayelsa state primary schools education along.”

  • Sylva to Dickson: Leave tribunal to do its work

    Sylva to Dickson: Leave tribunal to do its work

    Former Governor and Bayelsa State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, Friday, asked the incumbent governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, to halt his dangerous campaign against the state’s election petition tribunal.

    Sylva said Dickson and his co-travelers were patronizing a few online media to cast aspersions on tribunal members and browbeat the court as it prepared to deliver its judgement.

    The former governor is challenging the outcome of the 2015 governorship election in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Dickson, a candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the winner.

    Sylva in the statement signed by his Media Adviser, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo, reacted to series of verbal attacks launched by pro-Dickson’s groups ahead of the judgement.

    He said that Dickson was frequently using bully-boy tactics involving a series of lies deliberately told to impugn the integrity of the tribunal in obvious fear of an unfavourable ruling.

    Sylva said: “In one of the canards about a week ago, vended through a strange group, Good Governance Initiative (GGI), the Dickson group claimed that Sylva was lobbying the wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami (SAN), the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Engr. Babachir David Lawal, and other officials of the Federal Government to put pressure on the election tribunal to declare him governor via a “black market judgement”.’

    “Another false report, an apparent follow-up to the intimidation campaign run, appeared on Thursday, 14 July. It claimed the existence of an imaginary tension in Yenagoa following alleged “confirmation” by APC leaders, including the national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that the tribunal would rule in Sylva’s favour.

    “According to the report, “Some key supporters of the Dickson-led PDP” have met to plan how to react in the event of an unfavourable judgement.

    “Chief Sylva, who is the petitioner in the case sees this attempt by Dickson to second-guess the decision of the tribunal and, perhaps, try to intimidate it, as immoral and despicable. Sylva appeals to Dickson and his men to allow the tribunal to do its job”.

    He said that Dickson successfully applied his familiar intimidation strategies in the past, before, during, and after the governorship election in the state last December and this January.

    But Sylva said such tactics would not succeed with the judiciary adding that as a democrat, he took his case against the last election to the tribunal.

    He said: “As a democrat and firm believer in the rule of law, Sylva had taken his misgivings about the outcome of the election to the election tribunal to see if the victory awarded to Dickson by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could stand up to judicial scrutiny.

    “He, thus, urges that Dickson should for once control his predilections for falsehood and violent incitement and wait for the judicial process as it unfolds.

    “Sylva’s expectation of justice from the election tribunal is hinged on his belief that the honourable judges would be guided by the letter and spirit of the law.

    “Neither Bola Tinubu, nor Abubakar Malami, Babachir Lawal or Aisha Buhari is a member of the election tribunal. Therefore, it is unfair for Dickson and his group to insinuate that the respected tribunal judges are poodles of any political party or individual.

    “It is also unjust for Dickson to be spending the resources of the people of Bayelsa State on a desperate media campaign purposed to call into question the reputation of the country’s judiciary.

    “It is even wicked, ungodly and uncaring that this wastage is happening at a time when workers in the state are being owed several months’ salaries.

    “We are aware that huge amounts of money have been disbursed by Dickson to individuals and groups to do a hatchet job on the Bayelsa election tribunal as it prepares to deliver its judgement.

    “We are also aware that certain groups have been procured by Dickson and his men to cause violence if the ruling does not go in his favour.

    “This manifestation of politics of anxiety on the part of Dickson is despicable. It is uncalled for, especially, as he is well aware that whatever judgement the election tribunal would give is not final”.

    Sylva added: “Finally, no date has been fixed for judgement by the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal Holden at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with Petition Number: EPT/BY/GOV/002/2016, involving:  Sylva and the APC Versus INEC, Dickson and PDP. Yet, one report was very categorical on “the date” for verdict. This is worrisome.

    According to one online medium on Thursday: “Although the tribunal will deliver its judgement on his petition on July 29, sources told journalists that the ‘positive mood’ in the Sylva’s camp was sequel to alleged ‘confirmation’ received from some influential citizens within the APC that judgement will likely go the way of their candidate at the tribunal.

    “Irrefutable evidence linking key media aides of Dickson to these irresponsible reports makes this even more worrisome.”

  • Bayelsa local govt workers sacked amidst protest

    Bayelsa local govt workers sacked amidst protest

    …Victims accuse council boss of witch-hunt

    Hundreds of workers from Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, have taken to the streets of Yenagoa, the state capital, to protest their sacking and exclusion from an ongoing process to pay the staff of the council January salary.

    It was gathered that out of the seven months owed workers in the council, the state ordered that one month salary should be paid them.

    But the aggrieved workers in a peaceful protest on Monday said their names had been removed from payrolls despite partaking in the last verification exercise.

    The workers including primary school teachers accused the council boss, Joshua Maciver of carrying out an alleged instruction to delete names of persons who supported the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last governorship election from the council’s payroll.

    The workers were said to have disrupted vehicular movement and commercial activities in Yenagoa during the peaceful demonstration.

    They were said to have barricaded the road leading to the popular Swali market and the UBA banks where salaries were being processed for other workers.

    The workers said on enquiry, the council boss told them that their names were removed from the payroll because they were illegally employed in 2008.

    But some of the protesters who lamented their plight said their salaries were paid since 2008 till after the general election in 2015.

    According to them life had become unbearable following non-payment of their salaries.

    One of the teachers, Mr. Abraham Young, of St. Barnabas School, said the sudden action by the council chairman to stop their payment and accused them of being illegally employed was wrong.

    He said it was inhuman to call them fake workers after undergoing series of verifications.

    He said: “This is wrong. How can you wake up and call people who have been working and receiving salaries since 2008 fake workers. We have contributed immensely in the educational sector of this state. Look at how they treat us. How do we feed our families after waiting for so long for our salaries?”

    Another affected worker, Mr. Apollo Simon Gidi, from the post primary school board, said for eight years he worked  without any challenge.

    He said he was initially happy when he heard over the radio that the teachers would be paid January salary but that he became sad when the chairman said appointments of persons employed in 2008 had been terminated.

    “The termination of our appointment was not on any basis. We were employed by the state government through the normal procedure of employment. How will they come now and call us fake workers. We must take them to industrial court”, he said.

    Addressing the crowd, Maciver faulted the accusation of witch-hunt by the affected persons insisting that the procedure for the 2008 employment of the victims was wrong.

    He said his predecessors employed workers without the approval by the state government, adding the victims were supposed to be arrested and prosecuted instead of them to disturb peace through protest.

    He said the people protesting defrauded the state for many years and should be made to face the law.