Hardship, hunger and poverty awaits over 5000 Deltans as the Delta State governor, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, has pencilled down workers whom would be shown the way out of their sources of livelihood.
Reliable sources told 247ureports.com that the governor would begin the performance of the surgery with the state Sports Commission headed by his elder brother, Chief Anthony Okowa, before moving to other parastatal.
Investigation also revealed that Okowa would take the surgical knife to Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of government with the Ministry of Art and Culture and the Delta State Tourism Board in focus.
It was learnt that following the high wage bill on the state, the governor was determine to flush the system at whatever cost not minding who it may affect.
Some workers who spoke with 247ureports.com expressed fear and disappointment over the reckless manner the governor is going about his revenue drive, describing it as ‘madness’.
It was reliably gathered that Okowa is going after those his government perceived to have find their way into the civil service illegally and those whose employment did not follow the civil service rules and guidelines.
In his reaction, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu, while fielding questions from journalists, lamented the huge wage bill posing challenges to his boss.
Aniagwu observed that the wage bill of the state runs to the tune of over N7 billion but noted that since some surgical work had been carried out, it has dropped to about N6 billion.
According to him, “we are not in the business of depriving anybody from doing his job. Some persons were also employed for the purpose of filling spaces. What the governor is doing is to redeploy people to where they belong. Some people are just in offices receiving salaries without working for it”, regretting that some persons find their way into the workforce without employment.
He said, “those who are there for the sake of the salaries are short-changing others and are making it difficult for the Okowa-led government not to fulfil its electioneering promises of road construction, rehabilitating and building of schools, and other social amenities to Deltans”, he lamented.
But reacting to Okowa’s action and the CPS comment, the chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), in the state, Ambassador Oke Idawene, challenged Okowa to first perform the surgical operation with his countless aides before moving on.
“A leader shows good example but in the case of Okowa, he is a leader with hatred for the people. The country is in a very difficult time and everybody knows that. Why should a governor who claim to be experienced planning to put Deltans into more abject poverty? He asked.
Ambassador Idawene tongue lashed the CPS of promoting lies and deceit. If nobody will be sacked, why talk about some who are just in the office for the salary sake?
It would be recall that at the wake of Okowa’s administration, 2000 persons recruited into the state civil service by the immediate past administration of Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan were sacked while about 150 other staff, Edumarshals, who were working to take school age children from the streets were also laid off.
