Retired Teachers Forum Pleads With Assembly Over Eviction Notice in Adamawa

From Umar Dankano, Yola

The Adamawa state forum of retired teachers and concerned serving teachers have solicited the intervention of the state house of Assembly over a 3 days quit notice out of their government quarters across the state.

Recalled that Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri constituted a 9-man joint taskforce Committee on retrieval of government quarters on the 15th of September 2023 to 

solely evict those found to be illegally occupying the government houses in the state.

Addressing a joint press conference in Yola Tuesday spokesmen of the two groups, Mr. Dickson Monday and Comrade Salisu Buba Wakenso appealed to the legislature to wave into their plight by advising the state government to use human face in handling their issue and not to allow a task force to be humiliating them with their immediate families as occupants in those quarters.

The speakers also pleaded with Governor Fintiri to pay them their gratuities to enable them to vacate the government houses they are occupying and to build more quarters for teaching staff in the state.

“We are pleading to His Excellency Rt, Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri to please pay us our gratuities to enable us to vacate the quarters to save us from further insults and embarrassments from the Taskforce Committee.

“We are loyal and will never be confrontational in any form. Please let pensioners also feel the impact of the fresh breeze of your administration” Wakenso appealed.

They accused the Taskforce Committee of insulting and intimidating their members occupying the quarters in all the 21 local government areas urging the committee to stop branding them as ‘illegal occupants’ and insisting that, due process was followed when the houses were allocated to them by the previous regimes.

“We want the Taskforce to please refrain from branding us ‘illegal’ occupants because the houses were officially allocated to us while we were actively serving before we retired.

“The committee should also note that we are senior citizens and be given due respect as we refer them to the provision of Section 210, paragraph 1 of the 1999 constitution (As amended) regarding the position of gratuity”.Wakenso highlighted.

Earlier in an interview with the media, the chairman of the committee, Engineer John Vandu confirmed that his committee has visited many institutions like government schools and hospitals and has sealed all identified houses that are illegally occupied.

Vandu stated that some occupants resisted the development claiming to have been residing in the quarters for over a decade which was offered to them through the owner’s occupier scheme of previous regimes in the state.

He acknowledged the support and cooperation rendered to his Committee by the head of such institutions especially the principals and Chief Medical Directors of the hospitals in those institutions.