Abia government denies sacking 10,000 workers

The Abia Government has dismissed a report on the sack of 10,000 civil servants.

The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Okey Kanu, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Umuahia on Wednesday.

“The report on the sack of Abia workers by Gov. Alex Otti is fake and unfounded,” he said.

He said that the government introduced certain measures to address the issue of ghost workers, adding that in line with its agenda to sanitise the civil service removed names of ghost workers from the payroll of the government.

“Some workers whose names were thrown up during the verification embarked upon by the government as illegally employed were affected too.

“This group, comprises of those who were illegally employed from December 2022 up until March and April this year,” Kanu said.

He said that some of the civil servants that fall into this category had their appointment letters backdated.

“The employment of these individuals can be best described as surreptitious and a bait used to pile underserved pressure on the present administration, adding that no responsible government would allow such a situation to continue,” he said.

Kanu also said that there were no waivers applied in the employment of workers from December to  April.

He said there are established processes for the employment of workers into the Civil Service in Abia.

He said that due process was not followed with regards to the employments and urged the people of Abia to disregard the fake story about the alleged sacking of 10’000 Abia workers.

Kanu said that the  commitment of the state government to the welfare of the workers both those working now and the retired ones, remains unwavering, and further, reiterated the resolve of the government to pay all salaries  and pension arrears.