Abia state government under the leadership of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is set to sack over 500 workers of the Abia state Polytechnic, Aba, in a move meant to right size the institution and position it for smooth academic work.
News Critic gathered from reliable sources that the Governor who just returned from his oversea trip since the conduct of the General Election, in which he won a second term in office is poised to rejig the government machinery as well as tackle the issues of non-payment of workers’ salaries which has dogged the administration.
The state polytechnic is one of the parastatals that owe its huge workforce backlog of salary arrears in spite of the fact that it generates revenue through payment of school fees and also receive subvention from the state government.
In a recent interview with News Critic the Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, regretted that Abia Polytechnic is unable to meet up with payment of workers’ salaries despite being a revenue generating parastatal.
But this newspaper gathered that the bloated workforce of the institution is at the core of the inability of the state government to pay their salaries. For instance, it was learnt that the institution has about 85 security guards who manage only two gates. The same story goes with other departments of the institution where employment was done with utter recklessness.
Also to be affected in the imminent sacking are workers who got appointment into the institution with fake results. In the category, sources disclosed that the number is high. Others are those who falsified their age in order to evade retirement when due.
Dr Ikpeazu, who is billed to hold a state executive council meeting with the six commissioners that were retained in the recent cabinet dissolution is expected to ratify the sacking at the Exco meeting today, Monday.
The governor who appears to be determined to rewrite the history of his government this time around, has dissolved the board of parastatals and agencies in the state, apart from the executive council dissolution.
