The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has condemned the sacking of some category of recently recruited Civil Servants in Benue State, North Central Nigeria by Governor Hyacinth Alia.
Governor Alia had recently ordered the sack of over 3000 Civil Servants that were newly recruited by the past Governor.
Acting Chairman of the PDP, in Benue State, Mr. Isaac Mfo who stated the position of the party to Journalists at a Press Conference in Makurdi, faulted the action of Governor Alia, describing it as “unlawful, insensitive and callous”.
Mr. Mfo argued that the appointment of the sacked workers was validly carried out and due process adequately followed by the adminstration of former Governor Samuel Ortom as required by law.
“The affected civil servants were given lawful appointments into the state Civil Service having fulfilled all statutory requirements and until this directive, were entitled to all the rights, privileges and protections guaranteed them under the labour laws of the state,” he said.
Although the statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Alia, Mr. Tersoo Kula did not specifically state the reasons for the sack of the workers, Voice of Nigeria reports that there had been a lingering cold war between the immediate past adminstration under the Peoples Democratic Party and the new APC government since the recruitment exercise began in the last quarter of 2022.
A member of the APC government, Kenneth Gyado told Journalists recently that while the former governor of the state Samuel Ortom could not pay workers, he embarked on a last minute large scale recruitment exercise to leave financial burden on the incoming administration.
Meanwhile, according to statistics made available by the immediate past Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB Mr. Joseph Utse who was also sacked last week by Governor Alia, about 3,000 civil servants particularly Primary and Secondary school teachers who were recently recruited by former Governor Samuel Ortom were the ones sacked by Governor Hyacinth Alia on Tuesday.
The Party Chairman however stressed that the exercise would inflict severe pains and untold hardship on the victims and their families.
He said, “The insensitivity in the Benue State Governor’s action becomes more glaring when viewed against the backdrop of the untold hardship which Nigerians were subjected to under the recently expired Buhari regime in the forms of catastrophic economic mismanagement and such insecurity as directly threatened the country’s sovereignty”.
The Acting Chairman of the party observed that the decisions taken by the Governor since assumption of office were faulty and lacked due diligence.
“PDP observes sadly that by this latest sack order Governor Alia has continued by the wrong footing of his administration so far, by executing weighty actions without following due process of consultations and interactive engagements needed to input into those actions necessary public content and connect as should obtain in a participatory democracy such as ours”.
He urged the Governor to reinstate the sacked workers with immediate effect.
“Alia should therefore, without delay rescind the sack order he has issued to the thousands of civil servants in the state, as to do so will be to save his administration and the state as a whole the ill wind which the action is bound to generate which will surely do no one any good.
Mr. Mfo said the party would not rule out the possibility to institute a legal action against the administration if all avenues to get the sacked workers back on board fails to achieve the desired results.
“We condemn all the misguided, arbitrary and unpopular actions so far taken by Governor Hyacinth Alia and we call on all who mean well for Benue State to do same. This arbitrary sack order on Benue civil servants and those issued earlier to heads of Agencies and Parastatals in the state only opens the gateway to possible litigations which will not be in the interest of the administration and the state at large,” he said.
Private Security Outfit
The party equally frowned at the inauguration of a private security outfit, “Al-Teshak” by the state Governor which is linked to a profiled member of boko haram terrorist group, Mr. Aliyu Teshaku with a mandate to return Internally Displaced Person’s IDPs to their ancestral homes.
“This security initiative of Governor Alia is most absurd for the fact that it lacks legal backing and is questionable considering that this same Aliyu Tershaku had severally been arrested and profiled by federal security agencies as having links to the Boko Haram terrorists group,” the Benue State PDP Acting Chairman dded.
The Alia administration has however denied any endorsement and romance with the private security outfit.
Confidence Okwuchi
