By Our correspondent
The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Anambra State chapter, has called on the state government to pay the outstanding salaries of its members who have been wrongly labeled as “ghost workers” by the State’s Local Government Service Commission (LGSC).
According to Comrade Chikwelu Adigwe, President of NULGE, the situation is unfortunate and demands immediate attention.
Over 30 workers who have not received their salaries for three months stormed NULGE office office in Awka on Wednesday to protest and seek their president’s intervention.
The State Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) had earlier announced that it had discovered 427 ghost workers on its payroll, including 59 deceased employees, 40 retired staff, and 11 individuals living abroad.
However, Adigwe expressed disbelief at the commission’s claims, stating that the affected workers were genuine employees who had been diligently serving the state.
Adigwe lamented that the non-payment of salaries had subjected the affected workers and their families to hardship and suffering.
The NULGE president urged the state government to investigate the matter and clear the names of the affected workers, demanding immediate payment of their outstanding salaries to alleviate their suffering.
Chikwelu said he was at loss at to the criteria deployed to determine the real ghost workers, as their leaders at the grassroots had not confirmed such allegations.
He said, “Since the ghost workers’ rumour started spreading, we’ve not made any statement. We’ve forwarded your complaint to the Commission; but are surprised to hear that some of you have not been paid.
“I don’t know the yardstick used to come about the ghost workers. There are procedures to be followed including verification, issuing of query, but I learnt none of such was carried out.
While sympathizing with the workers, the NULGE boss assured them of a quick intervention to their plight, adding, “We’re going to delegate three executive officers to accompany you to the commission to hear from the Chairman and to justify the time and resources spent coming to the state capital.
“It’s unfortunate that this is happening under the administration of Governor Soludo who is passionate about workers’ welfare, including prompt payments of salaries.
“We’re here on your mandate, so we can’t afford to allow you to suffer unnecessarily. Tell the commission management that if at the end of this month we receive complaints from any worker, we’ll storm the commission and close it down,” he added.
Earlier, NULGE Chairman, Aguata Local Government Area, Comrade Odumodu Stephen lamented the untold hardship the affected members had suffered to for the past months.
He said,”We’ve been finding it difficult to take care of our families. Even to transport ourselves to this place, some of us had to borrow.
“These ones have been branded ghost workers and we need explanation of such allegations. We’re here so we can hear directly from you. If it means going to the Governor, we’re ready.”
Addressing the workers at the Commission’s head office, Chairman, LGSC, Vin Ezeaka, a lawyer, said it was not the intention of the commission to punish the workers, but to ensure sanity was restored in the system.
He however warned those who were not ready to work, but rather out to tarnish the image of the Commission to voluntarily tender their resignation letters or be shown the exit door.
Ezeaka said,”We’re not retrenching any worker, but we’re going to monitor those in our payroll. We have measures to dictate ghost workers so we don’t waste the money for genuine workers on absentee workers.”
