Palpable fear and tension have gripped Civil Servants in Imo State over last Friday’s untimely retirement of some Permanent Secretaries and appointment of seventeen others on acting capacity by the present government.
When Trumpeta correspondents visited the State Secretariat on Monday, most workers discussed the development in hushed tones alleging that there is no job security again in the state again as the present government may have acquired license to fire workers at will and without due process.
Some of the workers who gathered in groups to discuss the changes at the top echelon of the state work force accused the present administration of engaging in unwarranted politicization of civil service and undue victimization.
Trumpeta learnt from the aggrieved workers that retiring civil servants before their termination age or length of service is in contrast with civil service rule and guideline adding that it is unbecoming of Okorocha government to use the workers, government ministries, agencies and parasatals as tools for experiment.
A worker who spoke under anonymity noted that the sudden retirement of the 8 permanent secretaries was politically motivated as those from Ideato Clan, the ancestral home of the Governor and another from Mbaitoli, where the Deputy Governor hails from were skipped in the sack exercise.
Mrs Lilian Asuzu and Paschal Obi, Principal Secretary to the Governor on who is also at the rank of Perm Secretary are from Ideato North and South LGAs respectively, but were carefully excluded from the retirement exercise, while Callistus Ekenze, of the Ministry of Works from the Deputy Governor’s Mbaitoli LGA was untouched. The next persons untouched are one Yaro from Edo State who is in Secretary to the State Government, SSG office, as well as the yet to be seen Nkwerre-born architect, Ihekwaba, formerly of the Deputy Governor’s office, who was reportedly kidnapped by unknown persons for several months now.
The workers queried the rationale behind the Governor’s action in sacking the eight Perm Secretaries while Dr Obi, Mrs Asuzu and Ekenze remained untouchables.
According to a staff of the Ministry of Justice, “This is pure politics. Those in charge of governance in the state are showing partisanship. What were the offences of the sacked permanent secretaries that the remaining three in the state work force did not do for them to be retained after retiring others?”
The workers revealed that while some of the retired permanent secretaries have more years to reach retirement age and length of service as demanded before departure from the civil service, having been appointed permanent secretaries in 2010 by the last administration, untouched Yaro and Ekenze were reportedly made perm secretary since 2005 and even Dr Obi, Okorocha’s principal secretary was elevated to Perm Sec position from level 15 instead of 16.
While expressing fear, the workers noted that there are clear modalities for retirement of career civil servants who are serving in the state work force.
“The apprehension now is that Okorocha has bastardized the Civil Service, rendered it prostrate, and can now hire and fire, without Civil Service procedure, yet nothing happens. This is a bad precedent that may destroy the fabric of Civil Service in the state forever” another ranking worker told Trumpeta.
It was further gathered that they were axed because they were appointed products of the past administration after being appointed by the Ikedi Ohakim government in 2010.
