It has come to the notice of leadership of Ihitte/Uboma Local Government Area, the deliberate plan perfected by some faceless persons to malign the political and hard earned reputation of the Interim Management Committee Chairman of the council, Mrs. Maureen Onyekele. There is no doubt; from every indication that the mudslinging was a ploy devised by mischief makers to lure the public into witch-hunting the innocent and untiring hardworking woman who has staked so much to revive the hitherto dead council, in order to cover up their own atrocious deeds in the LGA.
However, in a reaction, Mrs. Onyekele, who sees recent badmouthing on her personality as media hype said she is not moved by the staged managed offensive from opponents, declaring that they cannot bully her to renege from the ongoing internal cleansing of the council.
Just last weekend those instrument of distraction acting script orchestrated by their pay master, took to the front page and page 4, of Announcer express of Friday eight day of November, 2019 to publish a fictitious reportage on the newspaper to stir up sentiment against Mrs. Onyekele, without justifiable reasons.
It would have been preferable to keep mute over this ignominy midwifed by unscrupulous and disgruntled enemies of the verification progress achieved by the Chairman, but it is necessary to put the record straight so that members of the public are not deceived by the antics of the antagonist.
It could be recalled that between the months of August and September this year, Mrs. Onyekele, conducted Staff Biometric Data capture verification exercise to unravel mystery surrounding staffs poor behavior and performance at work, especially the act of truancy among workers, and even those impersonating and collecting double salary simultaneously from the council with false names.
In the cause of the exercise notable pitfalls were identified, which also involved some senior civil servants in the council on whose aid some of the impersonators were carting away money that could have been channeled to other vital projects that will further advance developmental process of the area. At the moment two persons whose identities are preferred to be kept anonymous for purpose of ongoing investigation, have confessed to the crime of impersonation, as they are begging leadership of the council to tamper justice with mercy over their cases.
The problem started on the sixth of November when staff of the council were to hold the first Wednesday of the month prayer. They were optimistic that the Chairman will address them as she had promised earlier after the prayer meeting. Unfortunately it happened that she travelled and was delayed by the flight on Wednesday she was expected to return back to address the workers on event unfolding about salary issues.
Meanwhile, the NULGE Chairman Comrade Jude Igwe, whom the Chairman texted a message of the circumstance surrounding her inability to meet up the meeting as scheduled delivered the Chairman’s apology to the staff and promised that the next day being Thursday 7th November she will definitely be around to brief them. The Director of Administration and General Services (DAGS) of the council on his own part explained to the workers that their salaries dropped on Tuesday 5th of November and that necessary arrangement has been completed except for the fact that they are waiting arrival of the Chairman to commence payment to staff.
The DAGS said the reason they waited for the Chairman was because of the council’s new policy to operate direct e –payment to staff’s personal account instead of the issuance of Cheque system which usually cause delay in payment process. Reaching that Thursday the Chairman arrived at work very early with the motive to address the workers after she must have attended to some group that paid her a courtesy visit as well as some National Assembly members that visited her.
The worker ran out of patient after they had waited a while; thus, the NULGE Chairman Comrade Igwe Jude, dashed into the Chairman’s office to remind her that the workers are waiting but the Chairman queried why they can’t be patient. Mr. Igwe got angry at the response. He came out and briefed the worker that it seem the Chairman was not yet ready to attend to them which led to protest.
As for the traditional rulers alleged in the publication to be present at the time of the confusion; they came for a different purpose which was for a prior meeting scheduled with the Chairman, and of course they were perturbed the manner the irate workers unleashed undignified assault on the Chairman.
And if it is true that the Announcer reporter was on ground to witness the fracas why didn’t the reporter approach the Council Chairman to hear the other side of the story? The act of Announcer Express shows complete ineptitude, sycophancy and brown envelope journalistic approach.
Ihitte/Uboma is among the first line LGAs in the State that pay salaries early since the Rebuild Imo government came on board. It is a verifiable fact anyone can assess. The verification exercise revealed that some staff doesn’t go to work, and some go only few days in the month. These are the set whose cheque were delayed as a warning for them to desist from the attitude but they later received the cheques and cashed their pay.
Other categories affected by delayed payment are the 2017 employees of the council and the reason was that their payment voucher is different from the old staff. It was a directive from the State Auditor General that they should be payroll differently, which is the same across the 27 LGAs of the State.
The records are there for anyone who cares, under the leadership of Mrs. Onyekele, things has turned around, even the workers themselve confirmed to have been receiving salaries earlier than they usually do in the past.
Mrs. Onyekele upon assumption of office introduced series of workers incentives to encourage worker commitment to work by giving out cash reward of N15,000 every month to staff of various departments that takes first coming to work early each month. Expectant mother too, were not left out in the free largesse as pregnant staffs of the council go home with free N10, 000 monthly for their maternal upkeep. Even those from very poor background are given some considerations whereas she has engaged some unemployed indigenes of various communities to ensure life gets better for the people.
The list of her achievements are so humongous and has far exceeded maximum performance expected within her short period of stay in office, and this as already disclosed by the Chairman herself is even the beginning of the package she envisioned towards bringing facelift to entire LGA.
Indeed it is a show of shame that a reputable newspaper organization like Announcer Express could stoop so low to act unprofessionally on reportage without effort to verify the authenticity of facts contained in the false information it published. The report is appalling, one sided just as it lacks substance that meet international best practice and suffice to say Announcer has fallen below standard and it is expected that its management should look inward to overhaul the editorial team to get rid of the unprofessional elements in the medium.
Leadership of the council is not perturbed because it is not difficult to bring an action on the masterminds of the publication in conjunction with Announcer express but Mrs. Onyekele as already known for her peaceful lifestyle, wished not to be distracted from her mission to bequeath dividends of good governance to Ihitt/Uboma people.
However, that is not to say those disgruntled elements will always have their way to continue vending malicious crusade against the hardworking female servant of Ihitte/Uboma people, who has shown in all ramification a revered commitment to duty assigned to her in the council.
