NLC Kogi State Chairman Fired By Gov. Bello For Been A Ghost Worker

Kogi State NLC Chairman Among 9000 ‘Ghost Workers’ Fired by Gov Bello

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) chairman in Kogi state, Mr Onuh Edoka, has been fired by the state government, over allegations that he is a ghost worker.

Mr Edoka, who is the head of the Medical Health Workers Union and the state NLC, is among 9000 workers that were sacked following an illegal worker weeding out exercise.

Mr Edoka, however, denied the allegation, saying that the result of the exercise baffles him as he was recruited into the state civil service in 1989, and before the sack was a Disease Surveillance Officer in the state.

According to Premium Times, an online newspaper, Mr Edoka said the Paul Okuntimo-led committee claims that he submitted the wrong bank statements, but that they only asked for statements of accounts for the past two years, which he submitted.

The state NLC will protest the sacks, Mr Edoka insisted.

“The government just got a bailout based on the current staff strength. Suddenly they want to retrench workers to divert the funds even though some of these workers have not been paid for over 23 months,” he said.

“The NLC is saying that these people are not ghost workers. They are living beings and we are ready to bring them out on the streets of Lokoja so that the world can see that they are not ghosts but real workers of Kogi state,” Mr Eboka added.

Defending the exercise the led to the sack of Eboka and others, the government said the screening process was transparent and  that the workers will be given a chance to appeal and any discrepancy will be corrected as the current list is merely a preliminary list.

“The governor has assured the people that no legitimate worker in Kogi state will be sacked. But there are some people who got into the system fraudulently. For those people, we have no apologies,” Gbenga Olorunpomi, a media aide to Kogi governor, Yayaha Bello, said.