…Hails Nwaeke Over Civil Service Week
The Nigeria Civil Service Union(NCSU) has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to order the police to vacate the 23 local government secretariats in Rivers State or face the wrath of civil servants in the State, who are bent on occupying the secretariats if appropriate actions are not taken to restore normalcy at the councils.
This is even as the union has paid a glowing tribute to the Rivers State Head of Service, Dr George Nwaeke for the excellent manner he has been running the Civil Service in the State, and particularly commended him for setting the machinery in motion to organise this year’s Civil Service Week, which began last Friday with a media briefing.
The Rivers State Chairman of NCSU, Comrade Chukwuka Richman Osumah, who gave the indication in an interview in Port Harcourt, said civil servants in the State are poised to storm the council secretariats at the expiration of the ultimatum, to ensure that governance at the grassroots level in the State is not continually truncated, but restored in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He noted that it is regrettable that workers in the 23 council areas in the State have for over two months now been prevented by the police from discharging their duties, and called on the Federal Government to rise to the occasion, by ordering the police to vacate the council secretariats.
According to him, the workers, who are also civil servants have not committed any offence to warrant their being locked out of the councils by the police, in flagrant violation of their fundamental human rights, stressing that this has happened despite the fact that they depend mostly on the councils for their daily survival.
He hinted that the NCSU is working in collaboration with the Rivers State Chapter of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and the organised labour in the State, to call and prevail on the Federal Government to restore sanity at the 23 council areas.
While commenting on the forthcoming this year’s Civil Service Week, Osumah said everything has been put in place to celebrate the week, and applauded the Head of Service for the yeoman’s job he is doing in that regard, to make it a huge success, and for working round the clock with the state government to reposition the Civil Service.
He also thanked Governor Siminalayi Fubara for leveraging on the forthcoming event to attend to the welfare needs of workers in the State, and for continuously providing the dividends of democracy to the people of the State, despite overwhelming distractions faced by his administration.
The labour leader, therefore, used the opportunity to appeal to all civil servants to troop out in their numbers tomorrow at the Alfred Diete-Spiff Civic Centre in Port Harcourt, to give a rousing welcome to the Golden Governor, who will be the special guest of honour at the Civil Service Week celebration.
He said the State Secretariat Complex would be under lock and key on that day, as all workers are expected to be at the civic centre.
