It was a harvest of lamentations as a section of Imo workers and pensioners continued the seemingly unending verification exercise for the payment of the arrears of their salaries, owed since the inception of the present administration in the state.
News Echo, on Monday ran into the affected workers, numbering over 1,000, who had gone to the state secretariat to submit their credentials to prove that they are authentic civil servants in the state.
This time, it was at the Ministry of Information and Strategy.
Amidst confusion, the workers and retirees, mostly elders and looking sick, lamented their ordeal.
No official of the ministry or any other concerned ministry or agency was on ground to direct the workers on what to do.
In fact, the offices were not open. The workers and pensioners were seen dropping the documents through the window, on a table in the office of the Commissioner for Information.
Speaking to News Echo, one of the affected workers, a teacher who pleaded anonymity, said they were asked to fill forms once again, after doing so severally in the past.
“We have again filled the forms, but when you go there now, things are too rowdy, nobody to attend to the affected workers. Normally, somebody is supposed to have addressed us, tell us what and what to do next. For me, I have been owed since April and this is somebody who has only three years to retire. Why should I be treated this way”, he lamented.
He dismissed the government’s claim of fraud or mistake in the filling of forms as a ploy to hold on to the salaries.
Some of the workers who spoke to News Echo, said they were owed between two and 10 months.
The governor had claimed that he had paid all authentic Imo workers, labelling those who did not receive their salaries as ghost workers.
He later attributed the omission of some workers names in the salary schedule to the automation process, which he said would be normalized within few months.
The government at a point directed the affected workers to go for verification at the secretariat of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).
But the workers are yet to receive their salaries.
