Tag: abia

Abia State government on Saturday carpeted bishops of the Anglican Church in the state who condemned the decision of the state government to lay off from the state civil service those who were employed into the state’s civil service at the twilight of the administration of former governor of the state, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu.

The Nation had reported that the state government in a recent statement announced the sacking of those employed by the Ikpeazu government this is even as the government announced that it had been able to fish out about 7000 ghost workers in the ongoing verification exercise in the state civil service.

But the bishops of the Anglican Church, Aba Diocese in a communiqué signed by Ven. Innocent A. Ogbonna,  His Lordship, Clerical Synod Secretary; and Rt. Rev. Christian C. Ugwuzor,JP (Diocese of Aba), Bishop of Aba Diocese, (Anglican Communion) which was issued at the end of the third session of its 17th Synod on Thursday, among other issues raised in the communiqué, condemned the sacking of workers by the Alex Otti’s led government, urging the state government to recall the sacked workers.

However, the Abia State governor, responding to the issue of the sacked workers as raised by the Anglican bishops, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ferdinand Ekeoma on Saturday, accused one of the signatories to the communiqué of dragging other bishops of the church into what he described as the personal malice of the said individual against the state government just to accord the statement much-needed importance.

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Mr. Ekeoma while accusing the said signatory of persuading Governor Otti to recall a close relative who was among the affected sack workers, also alleged that the said person also prevailed on the governor of the state to confirm a factional Chairman of NULGE in the state against the will of majority of the union executive and members, and also to support the imposition of a certain traditional ruler as the state Chairman Traditional Rulers Council.

Ferdinand’s claims in the statement read “the said signatory had made a request to the Governor to exclude and allow his daughter who was a beneficiary of the March 2023 fake employment carried out by the previous government, after it had lost election, to remain in the Civil Service. 

“However, the governor turned down the request on the grounds that it would be unjust to exclude or recall one person out of the several people affected.

“The same Signatory had also made two other futile requests to the governor which included:  endorsing and confirming a factional Chairman of NULGE in Abia against the will of the majority of the union executive and members, and also to support the imposition of a certain traditional ruler as Chairman Traditional Rulers Council. The Governor turned down these requests because they were unhealthy and self-serving.

“Given the above, it is difficult to accept the pieces of advice as altruistic. 

“It was important that the church admitted that there’s obvious dilapidation of road infrastructure which has given rise to various socio-political and economic vices in the state.

“This implies that their expectation is that Governor Otti would apply measures that could have the propensity to disrupt the Abia norm of negativity and apply a workable and progressive strategy that can ignite prosperity for all.

“It’s equally interesting that the church seriously frowns at the last-minute employment carried out by the Ikpeazu government. We understand that the Synod’s disapproval of last-minuteIkpeazu’s decision was predicated on their conviction that it was a politically motivated sham whose purpose was deceitful.

“Having rightly expressed their opposition to that unjustifiable last minute employment sham, we are therefore surprised that the Anglican Synod turned around to disagree with the Alex Otti led-government over its decision to invalidate that act of deceit that was obviously a booby trap for the Otti government. This contradiction leaves many questions unanswered. 

“For further elucidation, we would like to remind our revered Lordships and other members of the Synod that the Civil Service is naturally structured to run an organized system predicated on adherence to laid down guidelines and extant laws in the recruitment of workers. It’s not meant to function like a market where entry is without scrutiny or restrictions; hence the under listed ten guidelines are followed strictly.

“These processes were completely ignored as no vacancies were declared and no transparent process of employment was followed. Smuggling someone’s name into the nominal rolls does not imply that employment has taken place.

“With no vacancies for employment declared, how do you surreptitiously and from the back door, process thousands of people and claim they were employed by the same government that was owing several months of accumulated salary and pension arrears which it blamed on an over-bloated workforce.

“After cleaning up the mess in the Civil Service and creating genuine job opportunities, the Otti led-government would properly employ Abians where they will be productive and useful to themselves and to the Government.

“It is also important to state that this government has not and will not disengage any staff who was genuinely hired into the civil service. 

“Finally, Governor Otti wishes to assure the Anglican church that he holds the church in high esteem and thus would continue to see the church and its leaders as progressive partners, but wishes to call on the leadership of the church to caution individuals who might want to subject the church to public ridicule in pursuit of selfish interests.”

The member representing Aba North and Aba South Federal Constituency, Emeka Nnamani on Wednesday, September 13, urged his supporters not to panic after a ruling of the National Assembly Tribunal that sat in the state sacked him.

Nnamani urged his supporters to remain calm as he affirmed that he remained the member representing the Federal Constituency until the final part of the judgement, stressing that he is sure that he would retain his seat to continue to serve Aba at the National Assembly.

The Nation reports that on Monday, the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, Abia State capital, led by Justice Adeyinka Aderibigbe reportedly sacked Nnamani, who is a member of the Labour Party and ordered that a certificate of return be issued to the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Alex Ikwechegh.

Our correspondent reports that after the tribunal judgement, many media outlets have been reporting that the tribunal sacked Nnamani because of certificate forgery.

Others equally reported that there was a court ruling banning him from participating in elections for ten years, but the lawmaker elected on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) at the briefing debunked and described it as a lie from the pit of hell.

“There was nothing like the court banning me Emeka Nnamani from contesting an election in 10 years. That’s a fallacy and a fabrication from the pit of hell used regularly by opposition parties to pull us back.

“The records of what the court said at that time in 2015 are there. I do not want to bring the competent of the court into question because our jurisprudence is a perfect one and works according to the evidence available to them.

“As of 2015, there were hiccups that my opponent took advantage of mentioning the institution they mentioned and the institution has since then said that they had issues with the exams and records of the school which led to misplacement of some records when they were moving from analogue to digital records keeping.

“There were cases of missing records and somebody went to that institution and took advantage of such a problem. But since then, the institution has cleared me.”

Explaining further, Nnamani said that in the 2023 Tribunal, four petitions were brought against him and his party, the Labour Party.

“In the midway, APC and AA withdrew which I’m grateful for because they saw no reason to help in my distraction and the effect it would have on my Constituency.

“The PDP and APGA decided to continue with the petition and in court, they brought a quite number of things ranging from the issue of election, areas where election didn’t hold.

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“They also brought issues of INEC’s unpreparedness for the election, people they felt were disenfranchised and purportedly claimed that those people would have voted for them.

“The Court threw those issues away and upheld my election on that section. APGA also claimed that I participated in their primaries which is not true because I never knew when it took place.

“Again, they brought the 2015 case where the judges were misled thinking that I didn’t graduate from the institution they mentioned at that time of which I’ve been cleared.

“The court already has before it a report of police clearance on me that I didn’t have any case of forgery. We all know that for you to substantiate any case of forgery in the Nigerian Constitution, there has to be a police report.

“However in 2015, there was none. Rather the court requested that any party involved or any interested party has the liberty to go to the police and make a complaint and they also asked the police to investigate and possibly prosecute.”

The Abia state government has denied the news making rounds that it sacked 10,000 workers in the employ of the state.

The commissioner for information and culture, Okey Kanu made the clarification in an interview with newsmen in Umuahia, the state capital, describing the news as fake and unfounded.

He explained that what happened was that some ghost workers were removed from the payroll of the State government.

Kanu further added that some workers whose names were thrown up during the verification exercise embarked upon by the government as illegally employed were affected too.

According to him, “This group comprised those who were illegally employed from December 2022 and up until March and April this year, long after the current governor had been declared as the duly elected Governor of Abia state.”

He said some of the affected staff had their appointment letters backdated.

The governor noted that their employment was surreptitious and a bait with which to pile underserved pressure on the then-incoming administration of Alex Otti, saying that no responsible government would allow such a situation to subsist.

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Kanu also informed that there were no waivers applied in those subject employments as well, adding that, there were officially established processes for employment into the civil service in Abia state and maintained that all such processes were not followed with regards to these employments.

The commissioner also urged Abians and residents of the state to disregard what he described as a “fake story”, about the sacking of ten thousand workers of the state public service system.

He, however, assured them that the administration of Otti was committed to the welfare of the state’s civil servants and pensioners.

He reiterated the governor’s resolve to pay all arrears of salaries and pensions owed to workers and pensioners in the state.