The Benue State House of Assembly has suspended the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr Grace Adagba, over controversies trailing the ongoing recruitment process of the agency.
The lawmakers asked Adagba to step aside to allow an investigation into the recruitment of primary school teachers.
Adagba’s suspension was reached during Thursday’s plenary in Makurdi, followed by a motion moved by the Majority Whip, Peter Ipusu, and supported by a majority of lawmakers.
Speaker Hyacinth Dajoh announced the decision after 21 members voted in favour of the motion, while five opposed it.
The Speaker said, “The chairman should step aside and hand over to the Permanent Member and allow the house to carry out her investigation.”
The assembly also constituted a seven-man committee to investigate the exercise and report to the house within seven days.
The House Majority Whip also said that the house had earlier adopted resolutions which directed the SUBEB to suspend the ongoing recruitment of Primary School Teachers to allow for investigation into controversies surrounding the exercise but regretted that the order was ignored.
The lawmaker further said that a day after the resolution was duly conveyed, the chairman released a statement indicating that new cut-off marks had been allocated to the various local governments based on their performance in the Computer-Based Test conducted by the board and subsequently shortlisted additional names for physical screening.
He expressed worry that the statement released by SUBEB was not only reactionary but disparaging of the honour of the assembly and its resolutions.
The motion was seconded by Alfred Berger, stating that the chairman lacked the integrity to continue to pilot the affairs of the board.
Berger added that the law establishing the board gave powers to the Local Government Education Authorities to recruit teachers, emphasising that the process was decentralised and the department of quality assurance of the board only supervised it.
Meanwhile, the Majority Leader of the house, Saater Tiseer, countered the motion and argued that the chairman should be given a fair hearing on the matter, adding that the day the chairman was to appear before the house, she was at the assembly by 10 am as requested.
Tiseer advised his colleagues not to make decisions based on prejudice but suggested that the House should take actions in line with the Constitution.
The counter-motion was seconded by Anthony Agom (PDP/Okpokwu), stating that the chairman should be allowed to explain herself.