By Okey Alozie
There is serious anxiety and panic over the rumour going around the local government areas of Imo State that many workers will soon lose their jobs as a result of government policy to downsize the labour force.
The ongoing verification and audit of workers by the local government service commission as we gathered sent a danger signal and made many workers of the 27 LGAs to start panicking.
Against this backdrop, the Chairman of local government Service Commission Dr. Obinatu Nick Ebere Considered it very necessary to clear the air, in a chart with our roving reporter on Wednesday 2nd of July 2025, Dr Nick Ebere made it clear that no genuine staff will lose his or her job adding that staff audit is very normal, therefore people should not see it as an avenue to sack workers. He explained that the reason for staff verification exercise is to know the dead workers, those that absconded from work and those who have truly retired from service.
“Governor Hope Uzodinma has no intention to sack any genuine worker in Imo state” the chairman further submitted.
Speaking further, Dr. Nick Ebere praised the Governor for being workers friendly. He then urged the workers to reciprocate to good gestures of the governor by giving him the maximum support to succeed in office. The chairman also hinted that the 3R government has a lot of good packages to unfold.
On the issue of ghost workers, the chairman said, there is no ghost staff again because the system has thrown them away. He maintained that the present reforms taken by Governor Uzodinma administration has changed many things for good and did not give any room for fraud any longer. He explained that ghost workers issue is a system where names that are not existing are added in the payroll to receive salary. “As at today there is no ghost worker in Imo LGAs”. He said.
Again, he said that all those who absconded from work have been fished out from their various local government areas.
