From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Abia chapter has berated the state Governor, Alex Otti over the reversal of the command promotions made by his predecessor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu in the last eight years.
Abia Government had through a release by the Head of Service, Dr Ngozi Obioma, cancelled and reversed all command promotions granted in the past eight years before the inception of the present administration, to both individual public servants and the entire workforce.
The release directed all affected staff to reverse to their former rank and salary grade level before the command promotions under reference.
Kicking against the reversal in a statement signed by Abraham Amah, Abia PDP Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary, the party described the action as obnoxious, punitive and anti-people.
The release read in part, “This directive is clearly anti-people and against the Abia State public and civil service rules, and Governor Alex Otti has cultivated the penchant for not following due process in dealing with the Abia Civil Service.
“A few days after he assumed office as the governor of Abia State, Alex Otti summarily suspended all the permanent secretaries in the civil service without due process and later sacked all of them without recourse to the provisions of the Abia Civil Service rules.
“A few weeks into his governorship, Alex Otti sacked all civil servants who had served as directors for upwards of eight years, even when they were not due for retirement, sacked more than 15,000 Abia civil servants without following due process and civil service rules, and subjected the remaining ones to endless verifications, with many owed salaries in the past 13 months that he has been governor.
Reversing the command promotions made by the previous government, which followed civil rules, is a pathetic anathema that speaks to the continuous destruction of Abia governance structures by Alex Otti, and this reflects his undying hatred for the PDP, especially the immediate past government. Incidentally, he has failed to learn, and this is made manifest in the embarrassing mistakes he has made in government, which he has surreptitiously tried to cover up by bringing back the sacked civil servants as consultants.
“Abia PDP considers it insensitive that Alex Otti will reverse the promotions and order the civil servants to return to the prior levels, including the reversal of their salary grades, in the face of excruciating hardship, soaring inflation, an economic downturn, and rising food prices. Couldn’t the government have devised another method of implementing this policy going forward than reversing a promotion and a salary that workers have built family structures in the past eight years?”
While urging Governor Otti to have a humane face in dealing with personnel issues, the state PDP however called on Abia civil servants to continue to engage peacefully and meaningfully with the Otti government for the reversal of the policy.
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