GOVT-LABOUR DISAGREE OVER VERIFICATION.

REPORTER: PEACE AGBO

Abia State Government says it is not embarking on any verification of civil servants under its employ as alleged by the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in the state.

The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, made this known to journalists at the Government House Umuahia after this week’s Executive Council on meeting.

Prince Kanu, explained that the state government only directed the civil servants in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, and the seventeen local government councils to upload their credentials online for better management of database in the workforce.

However, this has not gone down well with the organised labour.

Already, the Commissioner had alleged that the organized Labour in the State, having carefully reviewed the consequences of the previous verification that resulted in the non pay of salary to some workers, advised their members not to comply with government directive.

Prince Kanu urged the civil servants and members of the public to disabuse their minds from the misleading information by their leadership who failed to verify the essence of the directive by the state government.

Similarly, the Prince Kanu said the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) in the state over the weekend issued a letter to the government alleging that leadership of the union in the state did not represent them well during the agreement that led to the payment of the outstanding pensions in the state.

The Commissioner expressed regret that the NUP complaint was coming after it’s members had received payment notification of their pension arrears.

He noted that the executive of the union had over the years been interfacing with the government for the payment of these arrears owed by the previous administrations in the state.

According to the Commissioner, the NUP failed to borrow the part of the letter which said in a case of any disagreement that both party should come together for mutual resolution and decided to write a public letter to the state government which he noted was not a welcome development.

The Commissioner revealed that the state government had also rehabilitated 79 roads through direct labour as 23 others are still in progress in various parts of the state.

Answering questions from Newsmen on the clash between the Isu community in Arochukwu LGA and Ukwa in Cross River state recently and other bothering issues in the state, 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

Mr. Ekeoma further disclosed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has started inviting those indicted by the forensic audit report which the state government conducted through an international audit firm.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU