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Tag: Daniel Iworiso-Markson

  • Dickson wins award on good governance

    The Bayelsa State Government on Friday hailed Governor Seriake Dickson for bagging an award of Best Governor of the Year on Good Governance from the Daily Telegraph Publishing Company, publishers of New Telegraph Newspapers. 

    The State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson in a statement said the award was most auspicious following the evaluation of the merit behind it and the implication for a better society.

    He said awards when undiluted showcased and celebrated extraordinariness in leadership and performance, reflecting the critical factor of vision and courage in leadership. 

    Iworiso-Markson stated that Dickson deserved to be recipient of such award because of the difference he brought to governance and his style of leadership that had made Bayelsa a leading state in Nigeria. 

    The Information Commissioner noted that everyone, who followed the remarkable turnaround in education, healthcare delivery, infrastructural development and empowerment in the state would agree that Dickson truly deserved to be honoured.

    He stressed that the award and many others the governor earlier received would continue to encourage Dickson to do more for Bayelsans till he completes his term in office.

    He said: “To all Bayelsans, I want to humbly felicitate with you as well as the governor and entire bureaucracy of government on this occasion of the New Telegraph award. 

    Read Also: Dickson, PDP kick as Bayelsa gets new CP

    “It is though a personal award but really embedded in the true value of democratic government, counting on the pivotal role of the people, whose cooperation and dedication ensured the success of government in the new Bayelsa State.

    “The impact of the Restoration Government is real. Without doubt, Governor Dickson has made us all proud. And we cannot but notice the way and manner through which he achieved his quiet revolution in the state. 

    “It is a lesson in effective leadership: liberal, focused, very determined and responsible. His leadership style and understanding of governance have helped in no small way to facilitate this trend of success after success and I think he deserves more accolades.

    “We have seen a common trend of innovative leadership, breaking from the past as we know it and establishing fresh template of modern ideals both in policy and programmes to integrate development in the state. We have seen a culture of civilised engagement with the people and even with opposition without recourse to brutality or abuse of office”. 

  • Bayelsa condemns killing of teenager by cultists

    The Bayelsa State Government has condemned in strong terms the murder of a 100 level student of the state owned Niger Delta University, Miss Seiyefa Fred by suspected robbery gang of cultists.
    The State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, described the murder of Seiyefa as shocking, reprehensible and unacceptable.
    He said that the government would do everything to ensure that those who perpetrated the dastardly act were fished out and brought to justice.
    The commissioner said that the Government was elected primarily to bring peace, security development and stability to the state and would not condone the murder of innocent people.
    Iworiso-Markson urged the people of the state to be united as the government intensifies efforts to rid Bayelsa of cultists and criminal elements who place no value on human life.
    He said that the government was in touch with the police authorities in the state whose men had commenced immediate investigation to unravel to those behind the heinous act.
    The Government’s Spokesman also called on the people to volunteer relevant information to the police and relevant bodies on the activities of the miscreants involved in all manner of criminalities in the state.
    According to him, what Bayelsa needs at the moment was intensified concerted action against the murderers of Seiyefa and their cohorts and not the apportioning of blames.
    He said, “The Government of Bayelsa received with shock the gruesome murder of a 100 level student of the Niger Delta University by people suspected to be cultists on a robbery mission.
    “The government condemns with all vehemence this collective assault on our humanity as a people and would do all within our power to address this provocative act.

    Read Also:  Outrage as cultists kill 17-yr old girl in Bayelsa

    “Government calls for the cooperation of all our citizens in the days ahead as deliberate efforts would be made to go after those who have declared war on our peace and security.
    “This is a task that would involve everybody. We all need to take responsibility for our collective security.
    “We must all collectively condemn this and rise up to confront these criminal gangs terrorizing our neighborhoods. The perpetrators are not spirits, they live among us. Let us not be silent. Let’s not be afraid or shy away from reporting them because it could be anybody.
    “Government commiserates with the family of the late Seiyefa and assures that the killers would not go unpunished.”

  • 2019: Bayelsa trains corps members on violent-free elections 

    The Bayelsa State Ministry of Information and Orientation has commenced a two-day specialized training for new members of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) on violent-free elections in 2019.

    The training was designed to cover strategic public engagement, civic enlightenment and new media campaign on the need for voters in the state to elect the right leaders during the election.

    The training also involved modalities of  conveying messages on the effect of violence during elections and the importance of a peaceful electoral process.

    Inaugurating the training in Yenagoa, the Commissioner in the Ministry, Daniel Iworiso-Markson said it became important to raise the level of awareness on the need to elect credible people that would help sustain the legacies of the present administration.

    He explained that Bayelsa could not afford to go through another path of retrogression adding that the people must be wise in their choice of representatives in the state and National Assembly.

    The commissioner further explained that part of the problem that bedevilled the state in the past was the inability of persons elected to work together to bring development because of parochial interest and unnecessary political mudslinging.

    He said: “The conversation on the performance of the Restoration Government and the huge investment it has made in key sectors should be brought to the fore, to remind Bayelsans that all of it will be wasted without having people who share the same vision of the new Bayelsa.

    “Everything needs to be done to avoid a repeat of what characterized the last general elections that claimed several  innocent lives and loss of properties”.

    Iworiso-Markson disclosed that at the end of the training, the corp members would be exposed to basic tools in political communication.

    He said they would be integrated into the ministry’s new media team to enable them unleash what they have been taught via the social media.

    While urging the corp members who are mainly from Batch B Stream 1, to see the training exercise as a great opportunity to enhance their capacity, Iworiso-Markson added that they would find it useful even after their service year.

  • Bayelsa warns doctors, nurses against mistreating patients

    The Bayelsa State Government on Tuesday urged nurses and doctors in private and public hospitals to change their attitudes towards their patients to enable them save lives.

    The Deputy Governor of the state, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd.), made the appeal in Yenagoa, the state capital, during a meeting between the government and Christian leaders in the state.

    Jonah lamented that the way some medical experts treat their patients compelled many people to seek other means of attending to their health instead of going to hospitals.

    He said there was an urgent need for them to change their attitude for the good of the health care system in the state.

    Speaking on the meeting with Christian leaders, Jonah said that religious leaders were critical stakeholders adding that churches were found in every nooks and crannies of communities.

    Speaking on the occasion, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said that through the sensitisation effort of the government, the message of safe motherhood and childhood would get to every parrt of the state.

    Iworiso-Markson: “Through this programme, we are sending everyone to our communities. You know, in our communities, we have churches there and because of the church the people there can be reached.

    “Pastors play a very critical role; the church plays a very critical role in reaching these people, in reaching our women, so that they can discard those old practices, those traditional and religious practices that they have held on for so long where people take delight in giving birth at home rather than go to the hospital to give birth.

    “Now, government is saying that the hospital is free, we are providing everything free for you, doctors there will cater for you. That is why I gave a remark that we must commend his Excellency, Governor Seriake Dickson, for the support, particularly by ensuring that the 105 wards scattered all over the states have healthcare facilities provided there.”

    Read Also: Bayelsa inaugurates primary healthcare board

    He said that the government had not discarded the services of the traditional birth attendants but had embarked on training them to meet up with contemporary practices in health care delivery.

    He added. “It’s okay these are the things that our people are used to over the years but government is making it possible for them to be trained so that all those in involved in the TBAs are going to be trained. They too are going to go through the kind of orientation that we are giving right now.

    “Where there are complications, don’t hesitate to refer them to hospitals to refer them to doctors who can now provide extra medical care. So that’s the point we are making, so we are not discarding the TBAs, we are only saying that they do it the right way.

    “They must harmonize with the government and at any point in time where there are complications they should feel free to call the doctors to come in and as a government we are ready to do that.”

    Also speaking, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, said the government partnered Christian leaders because of their influence.

    He noted that with their collaboration, some of the Christian leaders, particularly pastors, would know their limitation and the functions of medical practitioners.

    On grants to pregnant women in the state, the health commissioner said that pregnant women captured would benefit from the grant.

    He said: “What I want you to take home is that once a woman is captured, she is assured of the money. Once she has been registered, the biometric is taken, she is assured of the money.

    “It doesn’t matter at what time the money is realeased, the most important thing is let them all register, once they register the money is assured and they will get it.”

    In his remarks, the Special Adviser to Governor of Religious Matters, Samuel Peters, said the church is to carry the message of safe motherhood back to their members.

    He said: “Bayelsa State is over 97 per cent Christians and in one way or the other they attend church and they get the message and our people respond to what they hear from the pulpit.

    “And if the government put it on the table that this is what we want and the church takes it back to the people it will have more effect. In fact, some people believe more in what their pastor say than what the government is saying.

    “And when the pastors key into good policies of the government, we will have a better, healthier and more fruitful society and in this case the government is saying we don’t want to see any mother or woman die in the course of giving birth and we are pastors in the state our duty is to take it back to our people.”

     

  • Bayelsa to aspirants: Election is not war

    The Bayelsa State Government on Thursday warned politicians against violent conducts insisting that the forthcoming general election is not a warfare.

    The government said it would work with security agencies to ensure that the state remained safe and peaceful throughout the electioneering period

    The state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson appealed to all aspirants not to hit up the polity with unguarded utterances but to play by the rules of the game.

    Speaking in a live online interview programme, Knowing Bayelsa, said it would be a sad situation if the existing peace in Bayelsa was truncated political activities.

    While giving an overview of the Restoration Government’s performance in the last six years, he said it was not in doubt that the government made remarkable achievements in virtually all the sectors.

    He attributed the success of the government to the quality leadership displayed by Governor Seriake Dickson, noting that the governor came prepared to deliver the goods to Bayelsans.

    Read Also: APC to INEC: investigate PDP’s plan to rig elections

    The Commissioner said: “After six years,  the footprints are there for all to see. We have made sustained progress to change the narrative of the state from how and when we met it. There is no doubt that we will be leaving a lasting legacy that is impressionable.

    “Let me say here that this is because of the kind of leadership we have in Governor Seriake Dickson. A man who is so passionate about development, so concerned about the lives of his people and with the right capacity to make things work. I am very humbled to have been working with him in the last six years”.

    Iworiso-Markson promised that most of the ongoing projects in the state would be completed by the Restoration Government and others would be almost at finishing stages before the end of the administration.

    “We will ensure the completion of projects like the Sagbama/Ekeremor road, of course you know that the airport is almost complete and ready for inauguration. The projects we can’t complete definitely the next government will take it up from there but they will be at advanced stage”, he said.

    Speaking on the 1,000 employment opportunity recently created by Dickson, the commissioner said there would be more of such opportunities after the first phase.

    He advised those who have been shortlisted for the job examination to do their best and be among the 1,000 to be finally selected.

    Iworiso-Markson maintained that the recruitment process was  transperent and the recent launching of the website by the State Civil Service Commission gave it more credibility.

    He also pointed out that the government created limitless opportunities for youths of the state as part of deliberate effort to engage them meaningfully and keep them away from social vices.

    He said: “These days it is not strange to see people earn fat salaries because of their ideas and innovations. So it is time for youths of Bayelsa to think and create things that will bring financial prosperity for them. There are people whose ideas have made them very rich. The Bill Gates and Mark Zukerberg of this world.

    “Look at Uber for example it is someone that started it. We don’t have that kind of thing in Bayelsa. So starting something similar here can change the story of someone. Some people have 3 cars wasting away in their garage, if you put that to use, you will see the returns. So things like that are what our youths should think towards”  he said.

     

  • Bayelsa to youths: Shun desperate politicians

    Bayelsa State Government on Wednesday urged youths to protect their future by identifying and shunning political desperadoes ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson told the youths that the electoral season would throw up desperate politicians, who would adopt wicked measures including riding on the blood of the youths to power.

    Speaking to a group of youths under the auspices of the National Union of Ogbia Students (NUOS), Iworiso-Markson, appealed to youngsters not to allow themselves to be used as instruments to cause violence and destabilise the state.

    He said desperate politicians were only interested in exploiting the energy of the youths to win elections and thereafter abandon them only to return to beg then with paltry sum of money after four years.

    He charged the Ogbia students to stand firm and resist the usual gimmick but to mobilise support for aspirants known for their performance and love for their people.

    Iworiso-Markson told the youths to be peaceful in their conducts during elections, saying, “your lives are more important than the ambition of a desperate politician”. 

    The information commissioner said his passion in life was to see to the development of young people with the capacity to rule their world. 

    He assured them of his support in their various programmes, particularly the campaign against social vices in Ogbia.

    He said: “Let me thank you for coming and for taking up the sensitization to curb the rampaging issue of cultism, abuse of alcohol and drug addiction. It is imperative to curb these menace as well as proffer possible solutions needed.

    “I endorse the programme and affirm my total support. This is because the rate of cultism and other social vices in Ogbia is alarming. 

    Read Also: Bayelsa gets new police commissioner

    “There is a general break down in the family and when you have a broken home, social vices are inevitable. So we will address the problem from the root because we don’t want any Ogbia child to die due to cultism again”.

    Earlier, the group’s Leader, Damini Patrick, commended the Government of Governor Seriake Dickson for the development of Bayelsa State, especially Ogbia local government area.

    He listed some of the projects to include the construction of Imiringi and Opume bridges which are about 90 percent completed, internal roads, among others. 

    Damini also appreciated the commissioner for his enormous contributions towards the development of Ogbia kingdom and the youths in particular and prayed God to continue to bless him.

    He said: “The Ogbia students are really proud of you for piloting the affairs of the Restoration Government in this ministry gallantly. And we are strongly behind you. 

    “We are here to talk about our upcoming programme. There is a saying that if you want to harvest for a year then you should plant rice, if you want to harvest for 10 years you should plant tress but if you want to invest for hundred years then educate a child. And education to us is path to success.

    “Dr. Goodluck Jonathan established a school in Otuoke because he knew that through education a better LG is assured. But recently in Ogbia kingdom, our youths are deviating from education and now indulge themself in cultism, alcoholism and drug addiction and so many other social vices.

    “I and my executives came together and said we need to fight this, this is a collective effort and we came up with the theme; curbing social vices in Ogbia Kingdom. So we thought it wise to see you as our representative in the restoration government to assist us in this program”.

  • Bayelsa demands justice for victims of killings

    The Bayelsa State Government on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to ensure justice for victims of killings across the country especially those who lost their lives and properties in armed herdsmen’ attacks.

    The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said justice would ensure national integration, peace and curb other challenges facing the country.

    ‎Iworiso-Markson spoke in Yenagoa while delivering a keynote address at the 8th Executive Committee of the Supreme Council for Non-Indigenes (SCN) in the state and the investiture of the organisation’s patrons.

    He commended the leadership of SCN for its efforts in contributing to the social discourse to bring about development and peace.

    He said: “Justice is key to achieving, assuring and perpetuating peace in the country. When we seek peace and exclude justice from the picture we are just paying lip service to achieving peace.

    “To put it graphically, each time justice is missing in the foundation of our search for peace, it will be as if we place the cart before the horse. Certainly, we wont be able to achieve any serious movement towards our objective.

    “What is missing in the country today is justice. One precursor that will bring justice and ultimately guarantee peace is restructuring. The time has come to restructure the country in line with advance federation of the world.

    “I do not want to propose anything different from what our leaders in the South-South and our governors, especially my boss, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson have proposed.

    Read Also: Oando, JV partners inaugurate water scheme in Bayelsa community

    “Suffice to say that President Muhamadu Buhari must quickly set machinery in motion to ensure that the issue of restructuring is addressed once and for all.

    “Incidentally, his party, the APC has also agreed that restructuring will be doing justice to every sector and region of our country. For the avoidance of doubt, the restructuring that the South-South envisaged will include fiscal federalism.

    “The issue of peace in the crisis-ridden North Central Nigeria where suspected Fulani Herdsmen have been accused of complicity in mass murder and expansionist tendencies, and myriad of other challenges facing the country could be resolved faster if everybody is served justice. Justice, to me, is one drug that cures all”.

    The commissioner said that Bayelsa State enjoyed sustained peace in the last six years because of the commitment of the government to ensure peace and social justice to all, regardless of creeds and tongues.

    ‎He said Dickson was conscious that lack of accountability, transparency and commitment to social welfare of the citizenry were also variants of injustice.

    He thanked the non-indigenes for their roles in boosting local economy ‎and living in peace with indigenes assuring them of a safer and more conducive environment for their businesses.

    ‎In his lecture titled, Peace-Building and National Integration in a Pluralistic Nigeria: the role of non-indigenes, The Guest Speaker, Raimi Lasisi said the threat to social integration came from persons, who provided incentives for violence, conflict and war in many parts of the country.

    He said: “Needless to say that when violent conflicts persist, the drums of disintegration become easily echoed in any society and this is particularly true of pluralistic or multiethnic countries like Nigeria.

    “Globally, there are several indicators that threaten peace and integration of nations. These indices all revolve around the balance of power issue which determines the level with which a nation lords over another especially for political, economic and social (ethnic and religious) reasons.

    “However, amongst the most pressing of these indicators that threaten peace building and social integration; negative ethnicity as well as religious extremism are the most vicious”.

    In their separate remarks, the Chairman of the occasion and Special Adviser to the Governor on non-Indigenes, Alex Dumbo and the President, SCN, Alhaji Ade Bakare thanked the government for giving them a sense of belonging in the state.

    They said about nine non-indigenes in the state were serving as political appointees of the government, describing it as a clear indication of their acceptability by the government.

  • 27,000 workers in our payrolls are fake, says Bayelsa govt

    The Bayelsa State Government on Thursday said 27,000 ghost and illegal workers had so far been discovered in the payrolls of the state and the local government areas.

    The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said the ongoing public sector reforms in the state led to the bizarre discovery.

    The commissioner, who spoke in Sagbama, Sagbama Local Government Area, at the ongoing town hall meeting on reforms, explained that the development had brought the state’s workforce from 56,000 to 27,000 workers.

    Crowd of stakeholders from Sagbama, the local government area of Governor Seriake Dickson attended the meeting and unanimously through voice votes endorsed the ongoing reforms in the state.

    Iworiso-Markson said: “Look at what has happened through the reforms. From 54,000 workers, with reforms we are now 27,000 workers in the entire state. It means that the difference of about 27,000 workers is fake people.

    “Since 1996 that the state was created, it is only now that we are realizing that our state is being shortchanged. It means that billions of naira has entered into the pockets of some people. They are the people fighting these reforms.

    “The people against these reforms are those who are taking advantage of our collective wealth and appropriating it into their own personal pockets and putting all of us including the state in this terrible mess. When you hear them criticize the reforms, take note of them, it is very possible they are those shortchanging the state”

    Read Also: Professor dies in Bayelsa office

    The commissioner also lamented that some persons purchased their employments by paying between N250, 000 and N500, 000.

    He told the people of the council that the boldness and passion of their son had liberated Bayelsa adding that God raised Dickson for the purpose of sanitizing the state.

    Addressing the stakeholders, he said: “Your son has liberated us. God deliberately raised Governor Dickson for this purpose to clean up this system. Anybody that is embarking on reforms cannot be popular.

    “But Governor Dickson is not the kind of man that is looking for popularity. If you look for popularity you will not do the right thing. If you look for popularity, this mess will continue. My happiness is that all of us in attendance today are all in agreement that this reform must continue”.

    The commission further decried a situation where a syndicate perfected fraudulent means of collecting salaries of 35 persons by raising employment letters of real persons without their knowledge.

    Explaining how the syndicate operated, he said: “Until these reforms, you have people working in our civil service and the local government. One man would have almost like 35 people and he is drawing their salaries. Those people are real.

    “They have letters of employments but they don’t know because this one man included the names of his brothers, sisters, nephews and others. There were letters but they didn’t know they were employed in the local government and this one man is drawing their salary.

    “When we started the reforms, when this particular man noticed they were coming to verify and they would be asking questions, he called all those people whose names were on the payroll and told them that their local government had just given them employment.

    He told them to come and do verifications. Those people were surprised when they looked at their letter and discovered that their letters were backdated to five years ago. It means that the man has been collecting their salaries for the past five years. That was how bad it was and the reforms came to stop it”.

    Explaining the gains of the reforms, the Caretaker Committee Chairman, Sagbama, Michael Magbisa said the council had so far saved N13m monthly from council’s workers’ salaries.

    He said about 42 dead persons were removed from the council’s teaching sector adding that N28m was being saved monthly from the teachers’ salaries.

    He said the health workers’ salaries also reduced from N57m to N56m following some adjustments rectifications abnormalities in the health sector.

    In his remarks, the Secretary-General, Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, Alfred Kemepado hailed the governor for implementing the reforms saying the process came to address the problems in Bayelsa.

    Insisting that the reforms would create opportunities for the youths, Kemepado said the governor was only correcting the wrong foundation laid by his predecessors following the creation of the state.

    “The governor is doing what others could not do. Let us applaud him”, he said adding that Dickson also introduced human face to the process by his declaration that no genuine worker would be sacked.

  • Dickson orders arrest of LG official

    For collecting 300 persons’ salaries monthly

     

    Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson has ordered the arrest of an official of a local government area for collecting the salaries of 300 persons as his wages every month.

    The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, disclosedon Monday that the official defrauded the council for many years before the ongoing public sector reforms in the state exposed the sleaze.

    Speaking at the made the beginning of a town hall meeting on civil service reforms in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state, the commissioner said the suspect was an accountant in one of the local government areas at the Central Senatorial District.

    Though the commissioner refused to disclose the name of the suspect and the particular local council where he worked, Yenagoa, Southern Ijaw and Kolokuma-Opokuma are local councils at the centre.

    But Iworiso-Markson said the suspect had defrauded council to the tune of hundreds of millions of naira before Dickson’s reforms caught up with him.

    He said the fraudulent local government worker was known for acquiring choice houses, estates and parcels of land across the state.

    Iworiso-Markson said: “Recently, Governor Seriake Dickson had to order the arrest of an official of a council. He (the official) was collecting salaries of 300 people. Yearly, the officer fraudulently receives hundreds of millions of naira.

    “That is in just one LGA and there are many places like that in the state. Some people are employed in civil service today, yet there is no document in their files. Instead, they were employed with affidavit.

    Read Also: Dickson lied on plot to destabilize Bayelsa, says Sylva

    The same people who do not have any documents and qualifications are collecting salaries of level 14 workers and above.

    “At the Bayelsa State Transport Company, you find a situation whereby you have about 180 drivers, but there are only five or six vehicles for them to drive. You can see the level of rot in the system. So, if we must be sincere to ourselves, we must all agree to join hands with the government to clean the mess in the system.”

    He insisted that the reform had come to stay, appealing to  the people of Bayelsa to collectively redeem the state from collapse.

    He said though people kicked against reform everywhere, sanitising the state’s public sector must be done to reedem the image of Bayelsa.

    He said: “Today, everywhere you go now, people talk of Bayelsa as a model. All these are because of the bold steps the Seriake Dickson-led administration has taken to redeem the state from payroll fraudsters and syndicates.

    “This government has initiated a lot of programmes since its assumption of office six years ago and those programmes have become a reference point to other states. We want to assure the people that the reform has human face. Governor Dickson has reiterated that nobody will be sacked  except those who use their hands to sack themselves.

    “People who falsify their documents, their ages, buy appointment letters, earning salaries from more than one place and other criminal acts have used their own hands to sack themselves.”

    Also speaking, the Chairman, People’s Democratic Party Caucus in the state, Chief Godwin Odinka, hailed the Governor for initiating the reforms.

    He said that successive administrations in the state could not muster the political will to carry out such programmes.

    The 86-year-old Odinka, advised that in cleaning up the system, care should be taken not to make the reform look as a witch-hunt.

    He said: “In cleaning the system, caution must be exercised so that people will not think it is intended as a witch-hunt on workers. What we want in this reform is a win-win situation.

    “We must commend Governor Dickson for his courage in initiating these reforms in the civil service. Past administrations in the state could not do it because they lack the political will and courage to do so. We are advocating that the reforms should have human face.”

    In his remarks, the Caretaker Chairman, Yenagoa LGA, Mr. Oboku Oforji, said the reforms recorded positive impact on the revenue of the council.

    He said the council was able to realise millions of naira from payroll fraudsters, a situation that had improved the resources of the council.

    He said when the reforms began, the council had a total staff strength of 1,483 but as of 2018, after weeding out ghost workers, the staff strength was slightly over 900.

  • We are committed to your welfare, Bayelsa tells workers

    The Bayelsa State Government on Monday restated its commitment to the welfare of workers to boost their morale and productivity in the state.

    The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, stated this in a statement to mark the 2018 International Labour Day Celebrations in Yenagoa.

    Iworiso- Markson said the Restoration Government gave priority to the welfare of workers at its inception in 2012.

    He said the Labour Day presents another unique opportunity for the government to pay tribute and appreciate the workers for their dedication and contributions to the smooth conduct of government business in the state.

    The commissioner, who described the workers as the engine room of the government said that, they were always motivated to carry out their duties, in spite of challenges.

    He said that the government would soon organize special trainings, designed to build workers capacity and enhance their efficiency.

    Iworiso-Markson, who also commented on the importance of the ongoing public service reforms, urged them to continue to support the efforts of the government to create a conducive working environment for them.

    He noted that, despite the lean resources of the government, it was still making bold efforts to pay salaries regularly and complete priority projects, with direct impact on the workers.

    The commissioner thanked the leadership of the organized labour in the state for their continuing support and solidarity and urged them to sustain the productive partnership.

    He pointed out that, the recent foundation laying of the Bayelsa State Labour House by Governor Seriake Dickson was a clear demonstration of‎ the existing harmonious relationship between the government and the labour unions.

    The statement said: “It is another time to felicitate with our workers on the special occasion of the 2018 May Day.‎ It is an important event that reminds us as a government, of the many contributions of our workers to the development of our public service.

    “We are proud of our workers and we congratulate them on this May Day. We use this opportunity to assure them of our unwavering commitment to their welfare. We appeal to them to show more understanding to the various policies of government‎ including the ongoing reforms which are all aimed at creating the right public service.

    “As partners in progress, we are also proud to be associated with the leadership of the organized labour in the state for their solidarity and support‎.

    “We are mindful of the challenges of the times and will continue to provide the basic needs of our people, the right kind of leadership anchored on transparency and accountability.”