Worried by the simmering anger of some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and workers over the lingering non-payment of civil servants’ salaries, the Rivers State Government has rallied banks to the rescue with a pledge to pay back the banks from its next allocations from the Nigerian Federation Account.
Sources told the Africanewscircle.com late Tuesday that some civil servants started receiving salary alerts from their banks this evening. It was gathered that banks agreed paying, believing that they will get their monies back when the next state allocations come into the state coffers. The agreement was said to have been reached with the banks at a closed door meeting held with the state governor, Rotimi Amaechi on Tuesday. According to sources, the crisis within the ranks of the ruling party in Rivers, took yet another twist Monday, as its leadership allegedly ‘queried’ the state governor, Rotimi Amaechi on the delay in payment of workers’ salaries.
The Felix Obuah-led PDP blamed Amaechi for the agony civil servants in the state have had to go through because of a delay in the payment workers’ July salaries. In a statement signed by Obuah’s media adviser, Jerry Needam, the state PDP chairman asked why the state government “remained insensitive and unconcerned about the plight of these workers almost two weeks into a new month without salaries and with no explanation on why they should not be paid their July salaries which are a legitimate right.”
The PDP insisted that civil servants should not be made to suffer because of the weaknesses and mistakes of inefficient state administrators. The party held that Amaechi has had to resort to meeting certain banks to assist him in paying July’s salaries, implying that the state was broke, and leading to a “confused situation as only two of the banks could afford to do so, and even at that, less than 40% of the workforce would get paid.
“There is no other rationale for this misnomer other than that the state is broke to the point of not paying monthly salaries. And we make bold to ask where has the money gone to, if not for the hosting of numerous supporters, fans and political gold diggers to whom Rivers State has been portrayed as a haven for such games,” the party regretted.
Responding to Obuah’s allegation, Amaechi’s Chief of Staff, Tony Okocha, described it as “cheap lie.” According to him, Obuah’s spokesman, Jerry Needam, was justifying his pay by issuing statements that are mostly “padded emptiness.”
“It’s all lies, cheap lies. There’s nothing like that, you can even ask the Head of Service about it. Ignore him, it is not true.”
He also said the governor will not shift his focus from development and delivering on the dividends of democracy to the people. All efforts to reach the Rivers state Commissioner for Information, Mrs Ibi Seminatari on the matter as proved abortive as her cell phone was unavailable.
But a statement credited to the Rivers State ministry of finance on a state radio station, 99.1 fm at 6:28am Tuesday stated that the delay in salaries was due to a change in account number s of c/servant by the banks.
However, civil servants from two key ministries who agreed to be interviewed without their names in print, indicated that the said change in account numbers was done and effected since May 2013 and wondered why it should pose any problem in paying workers’ salaries.
Another source close to the state’s government house claimed that salary checks were earlier withdrawn and diverted to run legal battles on behalf of the embattled, legislator nicknamed “the mace man”, Chidi Lloyd, a figure in the recent bloody daylight fight by members of the state house of assembly which went viral on the internet. The source disclosed that civil servants’ salaries were used partly to get bail for the lawmaker.
The state government has been accused of disbursing huge sums of money on Monday to youths used as thugs in the state’s 23 electoral wards while civil servants are yet to get their July pay.
“But N1 billion was shared yesterday by youths in the 23wards of the state with each youth getting as much N20,000 in preparation for 2015,” a reliable source stated.
According to the source, the largesse from the Rivers State government house, will continue until 2015.
“The money sharing was done in a government reserved area in PH at about 8:15pm last night. The state will be handed over to an opposition party, theAPC by the governor of the state to spite the presidency and this is just the beginning of the process where youths are being mobilized with N20,000 monthly.”
The source also disclosed that the governor’s favorites to succeed him are in the national assembly and will, in the fullness of time, decamp from the PDP to join the new party on whose platform they’ll run for the governorship position.
So far, no statement from any quarter of the rivers state government has discredited or countered the weighty accusations.
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