Kogi Govt Sacks NLC Leader, Says He's A 'Ghost-Worker

The Kogi State government says the state chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Onuh Edoka, is a “ghost worker”, and has fired him.Mr. Edoka was one of about 9000 people sacked following a screening exercise to weed out illegal workers from the 21 local government areas of the state.Mr. Edoka, who serves as head of both theMedical Health Workers Union and the NLC in the state, said he was employed in 1989, and currently serves as a Disease and Surveillance Officer in the state.He said he was baffled by the result of the screening exercise headed by Paul Okuntimo, a retired general, who gained notoriety for his role in the incarceration ofthe late activist, Saro Wiwa.“The General’s committee claims that I submitted the wrong bank statements. But they only asked for my statement of accounts for the past two years which I submitted,” Mr. Edoka said in a telephone interview withPremium Timeson Wednesday.Speaking on behalf of the state chapter of the NLC, Mr Edoka said the workers union would take to the streets to challenge the government’s actions.“The government just got a bailout based on the current staff strength. Suddenly they want to retrench workers to divert thefunds even though some of these workershave not been paid for over 23 months,” he said.“The NLC is saying that these people are not ghost workers. They are living beings and we are ready to bring them out on the streets of Lokoja so that the world can seethat they are not ghosts but real workers of Kogi state,” Mr Eboka said.The government said the screening process was transparent and designed to identify persons who gained employment or obtained promotions fraudulently.