How Abia Govt Discovered That Some Civil Servants Do Not Have Documents, But Were Employed, Promoted

The Abia State government has addressed recent reports from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) regarding a new verification exercise for public servants. They clarify that the current process in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and local governments involves employees uploading their credentials online.

Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, made the statement following the Executive Council meeting led by Governor Alex Otti. He acknowledged the NLC's directive advising workers not to participate in any verification exercise.

"The government is not conducting verification," Prince Kanu emphasized, "We requested workers to upload their credentials online. And like they say, 'there is always no smoke without fire'; the government had planned to make certain appointments from within the civil service and when the files of some senior civil servants were brought forward, it was found out that there were no papers (necessary documents) in those files. We questioned their employment and promotion basis."

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He elaborated, "It got to the point that the state government decided on a 'show your credentials' exercise, but just to make it easy for workers so that nobody congregates together to do all that, the government directed that the upload of the credentials be carried out online.

"So, that's not a verification exercise but suffice it to say that asking workers not to embark on that exercise without interfacing and finding out what exactly is the issue is not fair to the state government."

Kanu further addressed the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) recent statement. He found it concerning that the complaint came after pensioners received their outstanding pension payments.

"Strangely, the complaint arose after receiving payments, the NUP embarked on a unilateral action and decided to write a public letter to the government without first seeking clarifications from the government officials concerned. That's not the right way to go about it; not with a government that means well for workers," Kanu noted.

He highlighted the government's efforts, "This government has paid Abia pensioners their outstanding pensions with some dating back to 2014.

"A government that promised to pay pensioners their full monthly pensions going forward and has fulfilled that promise in April and is poised to sustain the payments going forward.

"A government that has come to your rescue after being owed several years of pensions; that's not the way to show gratitude. While members of NUP were busy doing that over the weekend, Abia Concerned Pensioners went around the city of Umuahia commending His Excellency, Dr. Alex Otti and the government.

"And what that speaks to is the fact that yes, we have pensioners who show gratitude to the government and you now have this other group that is now going about in disagreement. We feel we will use this opportunity to let people know that, that call by the NUP is not a right one.

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"Their executives were the people who, over the months have been interfacing with the government, and at the point when their outstanding pensions were paid , there were no complaints and suddenly they woke up to say that they don't accept the outcome of the agreement.

"And there is a part of that agreement that says that, in the event of any disagreement that both parties should come together and mutually resolve such a disagreement but the NUP did not do that," the Commissioner added.