Verification: Over 11, 000 Abia workers may be flushed out the system

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

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L-R: Uko, Fr. Christian Anokwuru, Prince Okey Kanu and Dr. Mrs Obasi, during the briefing

Over 11, 000 civil and public servants may lose their jobs in Abia State if they fail to utilise the two weeks grace period offered by the government to be verified.

The administration of Dr. Alex Otti, on assumption of off office, embarked on a verification exercise to determine the number of workers in its payroll.

The action was predicated on the suspicion that the bloated workforce was populated by ghost workers.

Five months on, the government said 62, 479 workers have been properly verified, while 11, 479 were yet to be completed.

At a media briefing in Government House, Umuahia on Monday, the state government warned that it would yank off the over 11, 000 workers from her books if they failed to complete their verification process.

The verification exercise ought to have ended by the end of October but the government extended it by two weeks to allow those yet to complete their verification to do so.

In the joint press briefing on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council meeting, Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu and the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties, Dr. Mrs. Betty Emeka Obasi, made it clear that the affected civil servant who failed to exploit the grace period would be removed from government’s payroll.

Prince Kanu, who noted that some workers did not turn up for the exercise, implored those in this category to use the next two weeks of the extension to complete their registration.

Contributing, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties, Dr. Mrs. Betty Emeka Obasi, revealed that 62,479 public servants, including pensioners, have been verified while some did not turn up or did not complete the excercise. 

“We set up a verification committee. We picked people from the State Civil Service, the Local Government, the Pensions Board, the  parastatals, organised Labour: NLC, TUC, ICPC, just to make sure that what we are doing is credible,” Mrs Obasi said.

She further explained that  “some started and could not complete because something was obviosly wrong with them being part of the system. So, what we have started to do is to put out that 11,479 people, those that could not complete and those that did not start the verification at all at their various Ministries, Deparments and Agencies (MDAs) and parastatals, their institutions, Pensions Board, their names will be there. And what it means, is if you’ve been yanked off the system, you could go back there, look through, if your name is there, you could see the reasons why you did not qualify to be those that were fully verified.”

The SSA to the Governor added that those affected should go to the Desk Office created at the Ministry of Finance for corrections or make their cases. According to her, data of those who have been verified have been sent to the heads of their establishments.

The Special Adviser to Governor on Policy and Intervention, Rev Fr. Christian Anokwuru and Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Kazie Uko, were part of the press briefing.