The Nigeria Civil Service Union(NCSU) has faulted the removal from office of the former Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Dr Tammy Danagogo, by the Sole Administrator of the State, Vice Admiral Ibok Ibas (rtd), who replaced him with Prof Ibibia Lucky Worika.
Following the development, the Rivers State Head of Service, Dr George Nwaeke, swiftly resigned his position, while the Administrator, appointed in his stead, the Permanent Secretary in the Head of Service Office in charge of Welfare, Mrs Inyingi Brown in acting capacity.
The Rivers State Chairman of NCSU, Comrade Chukwuka Richman Osumah, while reacting to the development in an interview in Port Harcourt, said the removal of the former Secretary to the State Government from office and other top government officials, runs contrary to the supposed peace mission of the Administrator, encapsulated in his statewide broadcast on assumption of office.
He said the Administrator, whose primary mandate is to broker and restore peace in the State is not supposed to dismantle the structures he met on ground, including the sack of top government officials.
He, therefore, wondered if sacking of the former Secretary to the State Government and other top government officials is part of the peace process, which the Administrator has come to facilitate and achieve in the State.
The labour leader noted that for the Administrator to achieve the much-needed sustainable peace and genuine reconciliation in the State, as well as successfully accomplish his mission, he should work with all stakeholders in the State, including top government officials he met on ground, instead of relieving them of their positions.
He said this is supposed to be the right path to follow if the Federal Government and the Sole Administrator truly have genuine intentions for the State and the people, whose interest and wellbeing is supposed to be their primary concern.
Osumah reiterated that the NCSU would not tolerate a situation where those who had worked tirelessly to give civil servants in the State a new lease of life, after they were subjected to untold hardship, by the immediate past administration of the State, for eight years, are unduly victimised, humiliated and punished.
According to him, the union would resist any move to emasculate the State Civil Service in a calculated attempt to take the workers back to the days of suffering, bondage and anguish, as they had experienced in the hands of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, who ruled the State as Governor for eight years.
He reminded the Administrator that for eight years, Wike failed to promote the workers, and never carried out employment exercise within the civil service, saying, the reverse became the case when Governor Siminalayi Fubara came into office, and not only promoted the workers but also paid all entitlements due them including the approved N85,000 minimum wage, and had put machinery in place to commence the employment of fresh hands into the civil service.
Consequent upon this, he said the union would not stand by and watch all the good gestures extended towards the workers go up in smoke, within a twinkle of the eye.
Osumah, therefore, appealed to the Administrator to dispassionately carry out his assignment, with a sense of responsibility, purpose and good conscience, and never allow himself to be led astray by any individual, no matter how highly placed, saying the world is watching him on how he discharges the onerous task and mandate thrust on his lap by providence.
The labour leader reiterated that no individual, no matter how highly placed, is greater than the State, as what is paramount now is the peace of the State, including the wellbeing of the people.
