Secondary school principals who engage in collecting illegal levies in Cross River State have been removed while others have been suspended and transferred.

The Commissioner for Quality Education, Dr Godwin Amanke, disclosed this during a ministerial briefing in Calabar on Tuesday.

He said, “We have given a lot of queries. Twelve principals were removed, six suspended and 16 were transferred,” for the misdemeanor.

He also said he heard that principals were paying as much as N300,000 to be transferred.

He confirmed the menace of cultism in secondary schools and said officials were being deployed to monitor schools.

Amanke further spoke on the achievements of his ministry, especially the completion of the N11.5bn Teachers Training Institute in Biase Local Government Area, adding that dilapidated schools were being rehabilitated across the state.

“If I had my way, I would make education free in the state. I did it as a local government chairman,” he said, adding that 1,000 teachers were being employed for public schools in the state.

Earlier, the Commissioner for Rural Transformation, Edem Okokon, said some rural roads had been fixed, while several solar-powered boreholes had been sunk in Obudu, Obanliku, Bekwarra, and Yala to ameliorate the acute potable water shortage suffered by the people in areas.

He decried the destruction of the housing estate in Bakassi during the #EndSARS protest in 2020 which had not been rehabilitated.

He said 157 properties belonging to government and individuals were destroyed during the protest.

The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Eric Anderson, appealed to the Federal Government to release the N45bn approved for the state as compensation for individuals whose properties were destroyed during the #EndSARS protest.