Nine Permanent Secretaries are set to retire voluntarily in Ondo State after spending over eight years in office as Permanent Secretaries of various ministries and parastatals.

Their retirement is coming on the heel of an extant circular that any permanent secretary who has served for more than eight years could be retired either reaching retirement age or not.

The Commissioner for Information and Orientation in the state, Yemi Olowolabi said the Permanent Secretaries have been called for a meeting where they were told to retire voluntarily.

The Information Commissioner was reacting to reports alleging that the Governor has sacked the affected Permanent Secretaries in order to pave way for a candidate for the position of the Head of service of the state.

The Commissioner said the least of the affected permanent secretaries had spent nine years in the office, adding that the governor did not give the order to favour anybody.

However, a top civil servant in the governor office who spoke on the condition of anonymity said "What happened is not a new thing in government service. When Mimiko was there, he appointed an Ondo man to be the head of service. So if Akeredolu appoints his kinsman as the head of service, heaven will not fall; he has the exclusive power to do it. He can appoint anyone that pleases him,” he stated.