APC attacks Gov Emmanuel over workers’ demands

Patrick Ekpo 

The All Progressives Congress, Akwa Ibom State chapter, has blamed Gov Udom Emmanuel over his alleged failure to meet the demands of the workers, despite huge revenue allocations to the state 

The party accused the state government of arbitrarily slashing workers’ legitimate entitlements without any stimulus package to motivate them. 

The Labour union  in the state has given the state government 14-day ultimatum to meet its demands which including payment of the 2020 leave grant to all Civil Servants, 2018- 2020 leave grant to workers in the Local Government Service and 2015, 2017- 2020 leave grant to Primary School Teachers and many other demands 

The APC in a statement by it Publicity Secretary, Nkereuwem Enyongekere in Uyo, expressed disappointment that civil servants in the state have been subjected to hardship and deprivation for the past five years 

“The PDP led government has nothing good in stock to offer the people of the State, rather since its inception in 2015, it’s obsessed with nothing more than retarding the fortunes of civil servants through arbitrary and the unnecessary slashing of their legitimate entitlements. 

“Civil servants and retirees have been faced with the worst evil plagues that have broken the threshold and sanctity of civil service that has been held in esteem over years as a prime mover of government successes and achievements.  

“APC is alarmed that in the last five years, the civil servants and retirees have been cobwebbed and subjected to a hell of bleak prospects, heinous incapacitation and frustration. 

“The party is disgusted to notice that in spite of the wind of benevolence that has accrued to the state in terms of monthly allocations and extra resources such as the Paris refunds, huge IGR , oil companies support, N78 billion refunds on federal roads and other means of state income, the government is still unwilling to settle its bills and remains adamant and insensitive to the welfare and wellbeing of the workers,” the statement read. 

Reacting, the PDP Publicity Secretary, Borono Bassey, said the APC in the state is trying to gain relevance but it would never have it. 

He said the PDP led administration in the state is committed to the welfare of workers and has demonstrated this by settling backlog of gratuities and pension arrears it inherited. 

“For me I think APC just want to gain relevance, but it will not have it because it keeps repeating and throwing up issues that we have responded to before. 

“This is a government that is deliberate about the welfare of workers in the state. Over time it had made recruitment, the settled backlog of pension arrears and gratuities that it came and saw” 

“The government is creating wealth through investment and Industrialization in the state. I was just passing by and I saw a trailer offloading flour being manufactured in the state and you cannot say the efforts of the state government in attracting investment should be discounted,” he said.