The Permanent Secretary in the Cross River ministry of education, Anne Odey has angered the state Governor, Ben Ayade.
The punishment for what the state government called “flouting of civil service rules” is an indefinite suspension.
According to the State Security Adviser to the governor, itJude Ngaji, in a chat with news men in Calabar, the state capital, the suspended permanent secretary single handedly ordered the stoppage of prayers in schools’ assemblies by students.
Odey had, in a statement directed all private and public primary and secondary schools in the state to stop morning and afternoon devotion forthwith.
According to Odey, the directives came from the Commissioner of Police, Henry Fadairo, in view of the security challenges facing the nation.
But the Security Adviser said that governor Ayade was not aware of such directive and neither did the permanent secretary pass on such information through the governor or through his office for approval.
“The governor feels pained that the permanent secretary got such sensitive information without seeking for his advice and went ahead to issue directive suspending morning devotions in schools.
“The governor has directed that the permanent secretary be suspended indefinitely while the ban on suspension of devotion has been lifted immediately.
“It is true that police got intelligence information that Boko Haram is planning to bomb schools during morning devotion and therefore directed authorities in the ministry of education to act fast.
“But the permanent secretary did not bother to refer to the governor or call for stakeholders’ meeting to that effect.”
According to the SSA, it would be contradictory to say that the governor who not only believes in God, but a strong catholic, would turn around to do otherwise.
Ngaji appealed to religious leaders to discountenance such instructions as the state government is committed to inculcating good moral lessons into the pupils and students in schools.
Reacting, John Eluu, the state Police Public Relations Officer, said Fadairo had approved a 10 minute time duration for morning and afternoon devotions.
“The Commissioner of Police told us during our briefing today that he has approved 10 minutes each for morning and afternoon devotion in both public and private schools in the state.”
The state Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop Joseph Ukpo, had reacted to the directive stopping devotion in schools by asking the state government to immediately withdraw such directive.
The CAN leader said that such directive negated freedom of worship.
“This directive to suspend morning devotion will negatively affect the moral upbringing of our children who are the future leaders of this country.” [myad]
