The heat generated by the recent report that the Imo State Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha is flying to and fro the state with a private jet is yet to subside as workers of the state government have for the umpteenth time come hard on the number one citizen of the state.
Still unsure of their fate concerning their monthly package rumoured to have been tampered in the face of the harsh economic fortune hitting states in the country, including Imo State, who are yet to receive their end of the month salaries, civil servants in the state have responded to a claim by the governor’s media chiefs that moving in a private jet is no “big deal”.
It would be recalled that in the heat of the governors asking for bailout from the federal government, a picture of Okorocha relaxing inside the cosy arena of a private jet appeared in one of the social media sites of his re-appointed aide on social media (names withheld). It showed Okorocha on his way to Abuja to meet with President Muhamadu Buhari. The picture which however went viral later generated mixed reactions in Imo State with the workers attacking the governor for maintaining his stupendous lifestyle while they are languishing in penury over unpaid salaries and allowances. The workers who gathered at the state secretariat Owerri, last Tuesday, and yesterday to bemoan their fate in the face of uncertainties, in separate interviews, took a swipe on the governor for not reducing lavish expenses in the face of hardship.
Following a response from the governor’s camp that the private jet movement means nothing to the governor as he was an already made man before becoming governor, workers told our reporter at the state secretariat yesterday that Okorocha had no private jet and never flew with one before he became governor.
Mrs Joyce Ukachukwu-Igwe noted that Okorocha never transverse the length and breadth of the country with a private jet until he was elected governor in 2011. “I know the Okorocha very well even before he became governor. Before now, everybody in Imo knows he has never moved about in the country with a private jet not until he was made governor. Since he became governor his lifestyle has changed. You see the way he celebrated his birthday and wedding of the children since he became governor”.
A senior civil servant who pleaded for anonymity for fear of victimization noted that the response of the governor’s media team was averse to the issue at stake adding that Okorocha chose flying in a private jet when he became governor in 2011. “When did he decide to be flying private jet, was it not when he became the governor of our state? He added.
The issue was subject of discussion in all the offices our reporter visited as the workers are yet to receive salaries. They lamented the ostentatious lifestyle of the governor when austerity measures are needed to cut down expenses to save cost.
Trumpeta learnt that unlike previous governors of the state, Okorocha makes use of private jets in his official capacity as governor even as the true identity, owner and funding are still shrouded in secrecy.
In a related development, Association of Retired Permanent Secretaries of Imo State has reacted to a government release on the state owned radio and published by some Owerri-based newspaper credited to the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Sam Onwuemedo, to the effect that state government is owing only May 2015 salaries to workers without having the courtesy of mentioning the plight of Imo State Government pensioners who are owed a minimum of five months pension arrears.
According to a reaction put across to the media in form of statement, the pensioners secretary, F. I. Agba expressed that “No pensioner has received any pension payment from Imo State Government since February 2015. Mr. Onwuemeudo should have shown some concern for the unsavoury situation. By his claim he has rather succeeded in advancing a very negative publicity about the State Government, which portrays it as a callous and insensitive Administration that cares no hoot about its aged citizens. Mr. Onwuemeudo is advised to read section 210 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended which makes payment of pensions a Constitutional obligation on the Government of Imo State. May I quote sub-section (2) of the said section 210. “Any benefit to which a person is entitled in accordance with or under such law as is referred to in sub-section (1) of this section shall not be withheld or altered to his disadvantage except to such an extent as is permissible under any law, including the code of conduct.
“May the Governor, His Excellency Owelle Rochas Okorocha ignore Mr. Onwuemeudo’s deceitful statement and comply with the constitution thereby rescuing the state pensioners from indignity and imminent death by paying their outstanding pension arrears as well as ensuring that pensions are paid as and when due”.
Meanwhile, Imo State-born former Minister of Interior Capt Emmanuel Ihenaeho has said that he foresaw the inability of most state governments in the country in paying workers’ salaries and pensions in recent times.
The former minister who is also an international mariner made this statement recently in Owerri through his media aide Barr Emperor Iwuala.
While speaking to the press, the ex minister said that before and during the last electioneering periods, he did everything possible including spending his own money to enlighten the people of Imo State on the increasing low income from sales of crude oil by the Federal Government which he said was the cause of the present economic hardship faced by many states. He said that many thought it was a mere political propaganda.
Continuing, the oil mogul remarked that doing business in the oil sector put him in the vantage position to foresee the downturn before many people in the state. He further said that the economic crisis was one of the reasons why he wanted to become the state governor so as to bring his training, skill and capacity to bear and quickly salvage the state from the economic doom.
Furthermore, he said that the state needed an experienced and honest industrialist that would re-direct the state economy towards industrialization to cushion the effect of the problem.
On the strength of the present administration in the state in tackling the economic meltdown, the business mogul stated that the present state governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha, does not have the training, vision and capacity to save the situation. He also said that he had not seen anything on ground that would rather save the state remarking that the situation would worsen if no drastic measure was quickly taken.
It could be recalled that since after the general elections earlier this year, many state governments in the country have been finding it difficult to pay workers’ salaries and pensions. Incidentally, the situation in Imo State is getting worse as many public servants are now being owed up to four months arrears of unpaid salaries. Among other things, workers of the governor’s employment scheme tagged ‘Youth must Work’ are being owed unpaid salaries of not less than eleven months while retired primary school teachers of public schools are owed more than seventeen months arrears of pensions.
However, the strong indications that the civil servants may be locked in war of supremacy with government emerged yesterday with two strong bodies of the workers union giving seven days ultimatum to the government over alleged salary deductions.
Sketchy information has it that both the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the National Union of Local Government Employers, NULGE, Imo State Chapters, who meet on Thursday behind closed doors to review the salary issue not only rejected a deducted salary package for two months arrears but also gave seven days ultimatum for the state government to rectify the disparity in the payment or face industrial action.
The workers further warned that any cheque written by any other government official other than DAGs of the LGAs for NULGE will be rejected following suspicion that the recent verification exercise by government will be used for salary payment.
