Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State
By Victory Oghene
A total of 2,943 personnel did not show up for A’Ibom
workers’ verification N80,000 minimum wage exercise fuelling speculations that they might be ghost workers.
On account of this development, the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, on Wednesday, directed the Office of the Accountant General to commence the immediate implementation of the N80,000 minimum wage to about 45,984 verified public servants in the state.
Eno, however, noted that “2,943 personnel, who did not show up (for verification) and 6,193, who have issues with their verification,” would not be paid.
This much was disclosed via a press statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Ekerete Udoh.
Udoh stated that the 80,000 new minimum wage would paid in arrears from November 2024.
He said the development followed the submission of the report by the committee on the implementation of the new minimum wage/personnel verification, headed by the state Head of Service, Effiong Essien, on Tuesday.
The governor thanked the committee for its work and called for an extension of the exercise to retired workers earning pensions in the state.
“Let me thank the committee for taking the time to deliver on this assignment.
“As I receive this report today, my understanding is that before now, we had a staff strength of 55,120.
“Out of that, 52,177 persons turned out for the verification exercise, so we still have an outstanding of 2,943 personnel who did not show up while 6,193 have issues with their verification.
“Having received this report today, I will be signing this off to the Office of the Accountant General, Auditor General, and the Director of Budget to come up with the memo that they are ready to implement.
“For those who have been cleared — about 45,984 of them — we should be ready to pay the minimum wage at the end of this month, effective from November 1, 2024,” he said.
The governor promised to continue making workers’ welfare his priority. He expressed the hope that the new minimum wage would cushion the effect of the harsh economy.
Speaking about those yet to be verified, the governor granted a 30-day grace period extension.
“For the people who are yet to be verified, we will give another 30 days.
“After that, we will end the exercise. If they don’t show up within the time specified, we will assume that they are not civil servants, and their salaries will be stopped.
“We want to extend our hand of fellowship to the organised labour in the state and ask them to work with the government, as we all have a responsibility to Akwa Ibom State.
“We have done a lot to engender good government-labour relations. Since we came on board, we have paid over N47bn in gratuities from the over N97bn backlog we met since 2012.
“We have also provided several palliatives to the workers and people of Akwa Ibom State,” he said.
Speaking on the recommendation that the verification exercise should be yearly, the governor said, “I have received your recommendation that this exercise should be done every year, and I think we will do so.
“Another area we will run verification is the pension payments. If what we uncovered can happen with serving personnel, then you can imagine what may be happening where people have unfortunately passed and are still being paid.
“We need to quickly carry out the verification exercise in that area too. So I am not dissolving the committee now; we will extend the life of the committee for another month,” he said.
The governor set up the committee in December, to ensure a smooth rollout of the newly announced N80,000 minimum wage.
Members of the committee, led by the state head of service, included the chairman of the Civil Service Commission; chairman of the Local Government Service Commission; permanent secretaries; Ministry of Finance; department of Establishments, Labour, and Manpower Planning; Solicitor General/Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice; Permanent Secretary and Accountant General; Permanent Secretary, Local Government Service Commission; Permanent Secretary, Office of the Head of Service and the Director of Budget.
Others were the chairman and secretary of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council; state chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress and President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees.
