Workers in the Abia State Ministry of Environment, Umuahia, on Wednesday, protested what they alleged unlawful deductions from their salaries. This is even as they claimed that deductions have been on since three years and the money amounted to over eight million Naira.
According to the staff who flaunted different placards, the money was deducted and dedicated to an account sometime in 2021 under a Christmas welfare program. The staff added that the deductions have been going on without the staff being refunded.
The angry workers, while displaying their placards, begged Governor Alex Otti to intervene in their plight.
The protesters also took their grievance to the office of the Commissioner for Environment, Philemon Ogbonna but could not meet him as he was not in office.
According to them, though the deductions of the money started in 2021, some staff still noticed the discrepancy any time they received their salaries.
DAILY POST reported that the workers fingered some powerful staff of the Ministry of Environment for their plight.
A staff who spoke the development, said even some retired staff of the ministry are also victims of the deductions. He added that such retirees have not been able to recover their deducted money.
“About four panels have been set up on this matter and nothing has happened. The other time they claimed that armed robbers stormed here and shot in the air and carried money. But we never heard any gun shot. They just embezzled our money,” DAILY POST quoted a staff member simply identified as Onyeoma.
The workers, therefore, called for the implementation of the reports of the Panels previously set up on the matter. This is to ensure that the deducted money is refunded to their rightful owners.
Abia State Ministry of Environment is yet to issue any statement by the time of this report.
However, in reaction to the protest, a senior staff of the ministry said that the alleged deducted welfare money may have happened under the past administration.
source: Daily Post
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