You Goofed On Workers’ Verification Allegations, Abia Govt Tells NLC

Abia State government has said the state Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), goofed when it alleged that the government had embarked on another verification of civil servants and local government employees in the state.

The council’s allegation, which was contained in statement by the chairman, Okoro Ogbonna, and the secretary, Emma Alozie, had followed a directive by the government to the civil servants and the employees to upload their credentials online.

The opposition, Peoples Democratic Party in the state in a statement by the vice chairman and publicity secretary, Abraham Amah, which was entitled “Endless Verification of Abia Workers” said the party “condemned the move in the strongest terms.”

The state council of the Trade Union Congress on its part in a statement by the secretary, George Okogbue, frowned at the directive, urging the members to hold action until a formal discussion between the executive committee and the government was held.

But, while briefing the press on the outcome of this week’s executive council meeting chaired by the governor, Alex Otti, the commissioner for information and culture, Okey Kanu faulted the reaction of the NLC.

“Government is not embarking on any verification, rather what is going on is that workers were asked to upload their credentials online. And like they say, there is always no smoke without fire,” he noted.
He said the government had planned to make certain appointments from within the service, but when the files of some senior civil servants were brought forward, some of the necessary documents were not available in them.

The commissioner further said that at a point in time the government considered whether to embark on a -show- your- credentials exercise but dropped the idea for some obvious reasons.