A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Transition Committee, Prince Kassim Afegbua, has accused the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, of converting his political aides into full-time civil service staff.
Afegbua, in a statement in Benin, said: “It has come to our notice that Governor Obaseki is presently converting his Senior Special Assistants (SSA) and Special Assistants (SA) into full time civil service staff.
“He added 186 of such appointees in September this year to the already bloated number of aides around him and has just commenced the process of absorbing another 152 aides to compound the problem.
“The interview is presently ongoing as part of an effort to overburden the incoming administration with huge recurrent expenditure, aware that the state is already bugged down by a huge debt burden.
“Governor Obaseki, for eight years, refused to recruit civil servants to fill up vacant positions and energize the civil service.
“He also refused to set up the Civil Service Commission until two weeks ago, in the twilight of his failed administration.
“We are alerting the public to be aware of Governor Obaseki’s deliberate engagement to stifle the resources of the state and pass on huge salaries and overhead to the incoming administration.
“This is not only a wicked act but a huge disservice to the incoming administration of Senator Monday Okpebholo.
“We have repeatedly stated the position of the incoming administration that anybody who is wrongly recruited or surreptitiously absorbed into the Civil Service, with backdated appointment letters would be relieved of his or her responsibility.
“Recruitment into the Civil Service must not only follow due process, there has to be a NEED for such persons who are so recruited”, the statement said.
It warned those who may fall into this deceit to be wary of Governor Obaseki’s dubious intentions.
But the Edo State Government in its reaction said employment into the Edo State Public Service since the outset of the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration has focused on serving the people.
In a statement, Special Adviser on Media Projects, Crusoe Osage, knocked the All Progressives Congress (APC) which had through Kassim Afegbua insinuated that the government was overburdening the government by employing more workers in recent weeks.
“We are unfortunately seeing a disturbing trend from the APC even before they assume office.
“They have started making spurious claims that the state is overburdened by debt and are now threatening that they will sack workers.
“In his recent statement, Kassim Afegbua, a member of the transition committee threatened that they are ready to cut down the number of workers engaged in Edo State because they need more money for themselves. This is evidently a sign of the level of thinking in the APC, where all they care about is what gets into their pocket and not what is best for Edo State,” the statement said.
It added that the comments about the government employing workers was misguided, noting that the government started engaging new workers across various spectrums of governance over 6 years ago, a fact that can be confirmed by civil servants in the State.
“So it is disingenuous to start claiming at this last minute that the government is now just only employing new workers to set traps for the new government.”
