Okorocha ushers 3,000 civil servants into 2016 with sack letters

After the festivities of the Christmas and New Year celebrations, about 3, 000 civil servants of the Imo State government were given a rude shock when they resumed for work in the New Year, 2016, as they came face to face with the reality of being thrown back into the unemployment market.

They were reportedly summarily sacked by the state’s governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha who stopped their salaries with effect from January 4, 2016.

A Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, source revealed that the over 3,000 workers affected in the sack are drawn from 19 parastatals, agencies and departments.

A statement by the Secretary to the Government of Imo State, Sir Jude Ejiogu, the workers caught in the sack-web include those of the Imo Water Corporation, Imo Cattle Market, Imo Sports Council, Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission, ENTRACO, Imo Marketing Company, Imo Consumer Protection Council, Hospital Management Board, and its headquarters staff.

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Others are Imo Tourism Board, Imo Blue Lake of Treasure, Imo State Investment Promotion Agency, Imo Job Centre, Imo Water Development Agency, IWADA, Imo Library Board, Imo Agricultural Loans Board, Imo Livestock, Imo Poverty Alleviation Agency, Imo Palm Plantation, Agricultural Development Programme, ADP and Small Holders Unit.

Reports say that “the current action of the governor, which not only came on the heels of last Wednesday’s labour protest in Owerri, headed by the National President of Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Ayuba Wabba, is also closely linked with the recent obnoxious form which the administration forced Imo workers to sign before collecting their unpaid salaries.”
But the government explained that the action followed what it called “a productivity audit recently conducted in the parastatals, agencies and departments.”

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