The Nasarawa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has threatened to drag the state government to court over an alleged plan to sack 2,000 civil servants in the state.
Speaking to journalists in Lafia, the state capital on Monday, the chairman of PDP in the state, Yunana Iliya, said the government’s earlier decision to sack 7,000 workers at the inception of the All Progressives Congress, APC, led-administration, brought untold hardship and rendered many people helpless.
“If the information we got is true that the state government is planning to sack over 2,000 civil servants, then we are in trouble because the crisis created by the last dismissal of 7,000 workers has not been rectified and another one is coming”, he said.
Mr. Iliya stated that the party was consulting with its legal advisers to decide on the best line of action should the state government go ahead with the purported plan.
“We would have no alternative rather than to sue the state government on behalf of the workers to save them from untold hardship”, he said. “The most unfortunate thing is that the wage bill of the state has increased instead of reducing since the sacking of the 7,000 workers in the last three years”.
The state PDP chairman urged the state government to instead make sacrifices in engendering peace in the troubled state rather than sacking legitimate state indigenes from work.
In a quick rebuttal, the state Commissioner for Information, Hamza Elayo, dismissed the allegation, describing it as mischievous.
He also denied speculations that the state among those struggling to pay workers’ salaries.
“It is mischievous”, he said. “In fact, there is a report in the media today that some states are struggling to pay salaries, but between you and me, you know that this state is not struggling to pay salaries. Since the advent of this administration, the state government has been paying its salaries religiously and regularly”.