Workers’ biometrics: We won’t succumb to pressure, propaganda – Ikpeazu

The Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, has stated that his administration will not succumb to pressure or any form of propaganda against workers’ verification exercise going on in the state.

The Governor made this pronouncement when he was reacting to questions during a Town Hall meeting organized by the state government at the International Conference Centre, Umuahia to mark Democracy Day on Tuesday.

According to Ikpeazu, the regular verification exercise has been of immense help in exposing ghost workers in the state, and stressed that no amount of pressure, blackmail and propaganda will make the state government renege on the exercise.

He said: “I am a strong believer that every worker deserves his pay. The only to make this work is to have a system where every worker will be identified, so that such a worker will get his pay. We will not tolerate a situation where real workers are unable to get paid while ghost workers get regular pay. That will not happen again, and that is why we embark on the workers’ biometric verification exercise.

“We are aware that some people are kicking against it, mounting pressure and carrying propaganda against the state, but let me say it here that no amount of pressure, blackmail and propaganda will make this government go back on the exercise.

“On assumption on Office, I was given a wage bill of N2.7 billion monthly, but with the introduction of workers’ biometrics, we realized that the wage bill came down to N2.1 billion.

“With the help of the biometric exercise, we also realised that a Director of Finance in one of the Ministries was paying himself in millions. When he was called in for questioning, he said he assists workers in Arochukwu with the collection of salaries due to the distance from the community to the state capital.”

The Governor, however, assured that teachers’ salary will be cleared in no distant time.

Ikpeazu further urged workers to comply to the verification exercise as it is a way to sanitize the civil service commission and rid it of corrupt personnel.