BEVERLY HILLS, February 16, (THEWILL) – Indications have emerged that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State is not funding the Delta Education Marshal (DEM) programme, initiated by his predecessor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, with the aim of scrapping the programme.
Reports indicate that the state government is planning to scrap the Marshal and launch another initiative in its place, which was part of the resolution of the recent education summit held in the state.
Uduaghan had launched the programme to eradicate the street culture in the state by entrenching learning culture through the EduMarshal policy and ensure that children of school age have free access to standard education.
According to data obtained by our correspondent, the programme had from 2013 to 2015 reduced the menace from 45 per cent to 25 per cent due to effective activities of Marshals in the state.
But credible sources told our correspondent that Governor Okowa, who had been silent about the sustenance of the programme, is currently owing the workers over eight months salaries and allowance with no official position to the fate of the personnel.
The situation had forced some of the local government workers of the programme to close down their offices because of expired rent in places like Sapele and Eku, while the Warri Zonal office had shut down.
The governor on assumption of office stopped some programmes run by his predecessor including the Environmental Marshals and the dialysis subsidy programme in the state Teaching Hospital Oghara.
THEWILL gathered that the move is already generating discordant voices in the state as stakeholders also expressed displeasure over the manner the state civil service employment scheme initiated by the former administration was also cancelled.
Reliable sources told our correspondent that Governor Okowa, who had earlier in June sacked over 300 workers employed by his predecessor on claims of impropriety in their recruitment process, including alleged money-for-job by the state civil service commission, had not paid officials of Edu marshal since June last year.
An EduMarshal who spoke on condition of anonymity told THEWILL that Okowa, from his body language, was no longer interested in the project noting that there have been no official position to the status of the programme.
“First, government has not paid us since June last year. Though we were not told officially that our job has stopped, the body language is saying the obvious,” he said.
“We have sent different delegations to government in Asaba but they always come back saying we should hope and pray that God should touch Okowa’s heart to sustain the programme, incorporate the scheme into Delta State Civil Service and also pay backlogs of salaries of almost 300 Marshals.
“Each worker was paid N50,000 monthly and it is 8 months now without salaries and allowance. The Education Marshal office located along New Ogorode Road Sapele has been closed down. The rent has since expired and the landlady can no longer wait on vain promises.”
“Each time we are out to protest, some government officials would tell us to exercise restraint that the governor was in the process of repositioning the project to accommodate his interest. We were at the oil and gas summit held in Warri to register our grievance but were shut out.
“We also mobilised to the venue of the just concluded education summit but we were not allowed to speak, they also shut us out so we don’t know where we belong right now,” the source lamented.
All effort to reach the state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr. Chiedu Ebie proved abortive as he couldn’t pick calls to his mobile phone or reply to text sent to him on the subject matter as at the time of filling this report.
Story by Joe Ogbodu
