Abia State Govt Denies Fresh Verification Exercise For Civil, Public Servants

Nnamdi Chukwu 

ABIA State government has debunked reports it was embarking on another verification exercise for public and civil servants in the state as alleged by the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state.

The government says that what is rather going on in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as the 17 local government areas is the upload of workers’ credentials online. 

The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu disclosed this while briefing the press after the week’s State Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti. According to the Commissioner, the NLC had released a communique to the effect that workers should not be part of any verification exercise.

“Government is not embarking on any verification, rather what is going on is that workers were asked to upload their credentials online. And like they say, there is always no smoke without fire; the government had planned to make certain appointments from within the civil service and when the files of some senior civil servants were brought forward, it was found out that there were no papers (necessary documents) in those files.

“There were questions as regards the credentials with which these civil servants were working. On what basis were they employed? On what basis have they been promoted over the years? Questions and more questions.

“It got to the point that the state government decided on a show-your-credentials exercise, but just to make it easy for workers so that nobody congregates together to do all that, the government directed that the upload of the credentials be carried out online.

“So, that’s not a verification exercise, but suffice it to say that asking workers not to embark on that exercise without interfacing and finding out what exactly is the issue is not fair to the state government.

“Recall too that over the weekend, the NULGE Secretary issued a letter to that effect as well. So, we are using this opportunity to disabuse the minds of our civil servants and members of the public who may have been misled by the false alarm and wrong narrative by the Abia State chapter of the NLC,” explained Prince Kanu.

The Commissioner equally described as unfair to the state government, the attitude of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP),  who, over the weekend, issued a statement to the effect that their executives did not represent them well during the discussions and subsequent agreement that led to the payment of their outstanding pensions in the state. 

Prince Okey Kanu noted that it was funny that the complaint was coming after the pensioners had received bank credit alerts of their pensions. 

“They embarked on a unilateral action and decided to write a public letter to the government without first seeking clarifications from the government officials concerned. That’s not the right way to go about it; not with a government that means well for workers. A government that has paid Abia pensioners their outstanding pensions with some dating back to 2014. A government that promised to pay pensioners their full monthly pensions going forward and has fulfilled that promise in April and is poised to sustain the payments going forward.

“A government that has come to your rescue after being owed several years of pensions; that’s not the way to show gratitude. While members of NUP were busy doing that over the weekend, Abia  Concerned Pensioners went around the city of  Umuahia commending His Excellency, Dr Alex Otti OFR and the government. And what that speaks to is the fact that yes, we have pensioners who show gratitude to the government and you now have this other group that is now going about in disagreement. We feel we will use this opportunity to let people know that, that call by the NUP is not a right one.

“Their executives were the people who, over the months, have been interfacing with the government, and at the point when their outstanding pensions were paid, there were no complaints and suddenly they woke up to say that they don’t accept the outcome of the agreement. And there is a part of that agreement that says that, in the event of any disagreement, both parties should come together and mutually resolve such a disagreement but the NUP did not do that.”

The government mouthpiece used the opportunity to inform that the state government, as of last weekend, has completed the rehabilitation of 79 roads through direct labour, while 23 are ongoing.

Responding to the question on the clash between the Isu community in Arochukwu Local Government Area and Ukwa in Cross River State over the weekend, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, said that the state government was fully involved in the matter and intervening to secure lives, adding that “government is on top of it”. 

He equally disclosed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has started inviting those indicted by the forensic audit report that the state government conducted through an international audit firm KPMG.

Eighteen-Eleven Media