Drama as Abia State Civil Servants lock out Accountant-General over unpaid salaries

News making the round has it that the gates leading to the office of the Accountant-General have been locked by workers, as evidenced by a video showing the gates being closed.

On Tuesday, civil servants from Abia State, situated in the South-East region of Nigeria, took a significant step by blocking access to the office of Mrs. Njum Onyemenam, who serves as the Accountant General within the state’s Ministry of Finance, located in Umuahia. This course of action was prompted by the prolonged withholding of their salaries.

The witness, who shared a video of the gate closure, informed SaharaReporters that “the workers have locked all entrances leading to the Accountant-General’s office.”

In recent events, it’s worth recalling that approximately a month ago, a substantial number of civil servants in the state converged to protest at the Accountant General’s office. Their protest was directed at the failure of the state government led by Governor Alex Otti to fulfill its responsibility of paying their salaries. The government’s justification for this failure included claims that there were numerous “ghost workers” on the payroll.

Sources indicate that the State Government, through an official statement issued by the state’s commissioner for information, asserted that they had unearthed over 2,300 fraudulent entries on the government payroll and consequently ceased remitting salaries, resulting in savings of more than N600 million.

However, the workers remained resolute in their stance, asserting that the millions of Naira claimed to be saved by Governor Otti’s administration actually represents the hard-earned wages of the state’s labor force, now pushed to the brink of deprivation due to the government’s actions.