The Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu has denied claims that his government owes some civil servants their salaries in the State.
Recall that the Governor-elect of Abia State, Alex Otti, while addressing some issues disclosed that his opponent, Ikpeazu owed some civil servants salaries. However reacting to the comment of Alex Otti, Gov Okezie Ikpeazu during an interview with Channels TV said no “core civil servant” is being owed any salary, adding that those that have issues with salaries are working in parastatals. “I have 31,000 workers in Abia workforce and 29,000 of them are up to date as we speak in salary payment… Parastatals receive subvention. I don’t pay their salaries because they are revenue-generating agencies of government,” Ikpeazu said. “But I don’t run away from responsibility, the issue of pension has been there perennially for the past 24 years. I did as much as I could, this government since inception passed through two to three recessions. When I came, within three months of my administration, I paid eleven months’ arrears of salary. “Those eleven months were there while I was governor. So, if you take up the position of governor you have accepted to take over both liability and asset and I don’t like to complain. I didn’t have to talk about what my predecessors did not do because what gave me my job in the first place was that there were things they didn’t do. So, for somebody to come and make a sweeping statement that no salary is being paid is a lie, I am not owing any core civil servant salary,” he added. He further argued that those working in Parastatals were already paid by the government.
