A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Transition Committee, Prince Kassim Afegbua on Wednesday accused the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, of converting his political aides into full-time civil service staff.
Afegbua, in a statement in Benin, said the category of the appointees were Senior Special Assistants (SSA) and Special Assistants (SA) and 186 of such appointees were appointed in September this year.
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According to him, “Governor Obaseki, for eight years refused to recruit civil servants to fill up vacant positions and energize the civil service.
“He also refused to set up the Civil Service Commission until two weeks ago, in the twilight of his failed administration.
“We are alerting the public to be aware of Governor Obaseki’s deliberate engagement to stifle the resources of the state and pass on huge salaries and overhead to the incoming administration.
“This is not only a wicked act but a huge disservice to the incoming administration of Senator Monday Okpebholo.
“Recruitment into the Civil Service must not only follow due process, there has to be a NEED for such persons who are so recruited”, the statement said.
But the Edo State Government in its reaction said employment in the Edo State Public Service since the outset of the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration has focused on serving the people.
In a statement, Special Adviser on Media Projects, Crusoe Osage said “We are unfortunately seeing a disturbing trend from the APC even before they assume government position.
“They have started making spurious claims that the state is overburdened by debt and are now threatening that they will sack workers.
“In his recent statement, Kassim Afegbua, a member of the transition committee threatened that they are ready to cut down the number of workers engaged in Edo State because they need more money for themselves. This is evidently a sign of the level of thinking in the APC, where all they care about is what gets into their pocket and not what is best for Edo State”, the statement said.
It added that the comments about the government employing workers were misguided, noting that the Government started engaging new workers across various spectrums of governance over six years ago, a fact that can be confirmed by civil servants in the State.
“So it is disingenuous to start claiming at this last minute that the government is now just only employing new workers to set traps for the new government.”
