PDP condemns sack of Benue workers by Fr. Alia
…Describes action as unlawful
By Titus Atondu, Makurdi
The Benue State chapter of the Peoples Democratic (PDP), has condemned in its entirety the nullification of some categories of civil servants employments who were employed by the former Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom by the All Progressives Congress (APC), State led administration under the watch of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia.
The Party also described the directive as unlawful, insensitive and callous fashioned at exposing Benue citizens to more untold hardship.
The State Acting Chairman of the party Hon. Isaac Mffo made the condemnation while addressing journalists in Makurdi at the party’s secretariat.
“The directive by Governor Alia which was conveyed to the public via a statement through his Chief Press Secretary this morning quashed all appointments, promotions and postings made in the state civil service from May, 2022 to the time of his assuming office.
“But of particular concern to us as the leading opposition in the state is the directive that “All recent appointments into the State Civil Service made by the outgone administration from May 2022 to date are hereby nullified with immediate effect,” Mffo stressed.
According to him , the affected civil servants were given lawful appointments into the state civil service having fulfilled all statutory requirements and until the directive were entitled to all the rights, privileges and protections guaranteed them under the labour laws of the state.
“This is to say that loss of such rights, privileges and protections cannot be at the whim of anyone, no matter how highly placed, including the Governor, but can only be for reasons prescribed under same laws, which do not include the action taken by Governor Alia.
“The insensitivity in the Benue State Governor’s action becomes more glaring when viewed against the backdrop of the untold hardship which Nigerians were subjected to under the recently expired Buhari regime in the forms of catastrophic economic mismanagement and such insecurity as directly threatened the country’s sovereignty,” Mffo explained.
Mffo warned that Governor Alia, being a direct offshoot of the cruel and visionless Buhari regime, should be threading cautiously as Governor of Benue State so as not to aggravate the pains and sufferings inflicted on the people of the state by that regime.
The PDP Acting Chairman further revealed that the latest sacking of Benue workers is another way of rubbing salt mercilessly into the gaping wound he helped to inflict on the people through his role in bringing President Tinubu to power.
“Perhaps the Governor need to be reminded that to the eleventh hour of his tenure, out-gone President, Muhammadu Buhari made appointments into the federal civil service.
“PDP observes sadly that by this latest sack order Governor Alia has continued by the wrong footing of his administration so far, by executing weighty actions without following due process of consultations and interactive engagements needed to input into those actions necessary public content and connect as should obtain in a participatory democracy such as ours.
“One of such wrong steps was the administration’s inauguration last Saturday of a security outfit owned by one Aliyu Tershaku which is commanded and staffed by men of Fulani ethnic stock, yet given the mandate to return farmers displaced by Fulani herdsmen back to their ancestral lands.
“This security initiative of Governor Alia is most absurd for the fact that st lacks legal backing, and is questionable considering that this same Aliyu Tershaku had severally been arrested and profiled by federal security agencies as having links to the Boko Haram terrorists group.
“We condemn all the misguided, arbitrary and unpopular actions so far taken by Governor Hyacinth Alia and we call on all who mean well for Benue State to do same. This arbitrary sack order on Benue civil servants and those issued earlier to heads of Agencies and Parastatals in the state only opens the gateway to possible litigations which will not be in the interest of the administration and the state at large. Governor Alia should, therefore, without delay rescind the sack order he has issued to the thousands of civil servants in the state, as to do so will be to save his administration and the state as a whole the ill wind which the action is bound to generate which will surely do no one any good,” Mffo maintained.
