The State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) head, Dr. Grace Adagba, has been asked by the Benue House of Assembly to immediately resign from her position.
During Thursday’s plenary, the House decided to permit an inquiry into the board’s hiring process.
A motion made by Chief Whip Peter Ipusu (APC, Katsina-Ala West) led to the resolution.
According to Ipusu, the House had already passed a resolution ordering the board chairman to halt the current hiring of primary school teachers in order to allow for an examination of the issues raised by the exercise. But the instruction was disregarded.
He emphasized that a day after the resolution was passed, the chairman issued a statement stating that different local governments had been given revised cut-off scores according to how well they performed on the Computer-Based Test, or CBT.
The Chief Whip added that the board went on to nominate further applicants for in-person examination.
He voiced worry that SUBEB’s remark was not only reactionary but also derogatory against the Assembly’s honor and its resolutions.
The proposal was backed by Alfred Berger (APC, Makurdi North), who said the SUBEB chairman lacked the integrity to continue running the board. Berger added that the Local Government Education Authorities, or LGEAs, were given the authority to hire instructors by the law that established the board. He emphasized that the process was decentralized and that the board’s Department of Quality Assurance merely oversaw it.
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Saater Tiseer, the majority leader, urged his colleagues to give the chairman a fair hearing on the issue.
Tiseer stated that she had shown up to the assembly by 10 am on the day she was supposed to address the House, as instructed.
In order to avoid making decisions based on bias, he counseled his colleagues to behave in accordance with the Constitution.
The chairman should be given the opportunity to explain herself, according to the counter-motion, which was seconded by Anthony Agom (PDP, Okpokwu).
John Hwande, the clerk, was then told to divide the House by Speaker Hyacinth Dajo. Twenty-one members supported the original motion, while five supported the counter-move.
According to Dajo, the chairman ought to resign and turn the board over to its first permanent member so that the House can do its investigation.
A seven-member committee was also established by him to look into the exercise and provide a report to the House in seven days.
