The Felix Obuah-led Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State says it can no longer keep quiet over the cries and lamentations of hundreds of thousand civil servants in the state whose salaries have been allegedly slashed by the state government every month.
The party in a statement issued and signed by Jerry Needam, Special Adviser on Media to the State Party Chairman said it had observed that civil servants in the state were going through “untold hardship inflicted on these helpless government workers, using the baseless state social services law as a cover”.
PDP accused Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of using the arbitrary salary deductions as a ploy to pull enough resources for his highly speculated 2015 Vice Presidential ambition.
The party also described as unfair Amaechi’s insensitivity and unconcerned attitude to the cries of the workers.
The PDP while describing the policy as irrational also referred to the deduction as not properly articulate.
“The irrational application of the policy without recourse to rank and amount earned by the workers, as in most cases, junior workers on grade level one to seven are tasked more as evidenced in the September deductions that have set some of the workers against the paying banks.
“The party wonders why the deduction if properly and purposefully articulated will continue to fluctuate month after month, and petitions by the aggrieved persons for explanations on the conflicting deductions not given by neither the finance ministry nor the paying bank.
“How can a government that continues to pride itself as having enough resources and is not broke not be kind or sympathetic enough to pay its staff what is due them but rather revels in seeing them cry and complain at the end of each month? Is this what democracy or being well to do is all about”, the party queried.
In the mean time, the party called on the relevant authorities in Rivers State and Gov Amaechi to stop the salary deductions from government workers and adviced that “the state initiate the process of refunding those who have already been shortchanged by the unpopular, irresponsible and inhuman policy”.
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