Hundreds of workers of the Sagbama local government council area of Bayelsa State who were sacked, as a result of revelations from the report of the Finance and General Purpose Committee of the council over their alleged involvement in the N10m monthly wage scam. The workers who were tagged “ghost workers,” yesterday faulted the position of the council’s authority, and described the report which indicted them as “doctored” and “lacking constitutional authority”.
The sacked workers in a save-our-soul letter to the state governor, Chief Timipre Sylva and his deputy, Werinipre Seibarogu, and signed by representatives of the group; Ogodo Boloebi, Ekmegha Pinna, Ebikapadei Dibiya and Edoh Patrick Ekior, argued that the action of the council chairman was illegal, following their certification by the bio-metric exercise conducted by the state government and the upgrading of some of the purportedly ‘sacked’ staff of the council in the employment of the state local government service commission.
The report of the council’s staff audit had been unveiled by the council chairman, Prince Perez Peretu, and they had discovered that over 29 dead council workers and 77 ghost workers were in the employ of the council and had been been collecting salaries since 2003.
The report of the committee showed that besides this, it was discovered that a total of 44 council workers had falsified their age and others were bed-ridden, due to old age.
It was also discovered that 14 persons were non-indigenes of the council who were employed in other local government council areas of the state.
In the protest letter dated 8th August and sent to the state governor through the state chairman, National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), the aggrieved workers of the council stated that, “It would interest you to know that, we, the 504 workers of Sagbama local council area were duly screened and captured by the due process during the state bio-metric exercise carried out by the state government.
“We have also served various chairmen of the council before the emergence of the (present)council chairman. Moreso, some of the affected staff have been upgraded and converted by the State Local Government Service Commission, to senior cadre.
“Invariably, such upgrade and converted staff are no more council staff, but staff members of the State Local Government Service Commission. In line with this, the Sagbama Council lacks prerogative power to dismiss such staff.
“We plead that the governor intervene in the Sagbama issue to save our marriages, children, education and health by instructing the council boss to pay our salaries for between October 2010 and July 2011, and reinstate us into the service for us to provide for our families.”