Daily Independent Online.
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Thursday, June 17, 2004.
Imo deploys policemen to LGs to forestall strike
By Ben Duru
Correspondent, Owerri
The Imo State Government has deployed
policemen to counter the proposed strike by workers of the state’s 27
local governments.
Deputy Governor Ebere Udeagu, who made this
known, said the policemen were drafted to the areas to ensure that there was no
breakdown of law and order in the 27 council areas following threats by local
government staff to embark on an indefinite strike.
The deputy governor said the order given to the policemen to
garrison the local government headquarters was aimed at forestalling moves by
members of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) to resist
the redeployment of their members to the state civil service.
He warned that government would deal
decisively with any person or group who make any attempt to disrupt the smooth
running of the local government system and that government was aware of the
plans by subversive elements to cause chaos in Imo.
Udeagu said this at a retreat organised for
the newly posted directors of administration and general services, treasurers,
and internal auditors of local government councils in the state at All Seasons
Hotel, Owerri.
According to him, government is aware that
the new posting is not going down well with some staff of the local government
system and that this group is trying to drag the peaceful atmosphere of Imo
into the mud.
He insisted that government would not take
the threat lying low and that all efforts to ensure that nothing happens to
stop the smooth administration of the system would be put in place, including
using the law enforcement agencies.
However, feelers from NULGE is that the 14-day ultimatum
handed down to government to rescind the back loading order is still in force
and that nothing would stop the indefinite strike.
Sources close to the hierarchy of the union
said that apart from the fact that the action was unjust, those who are being
posted are those whose godfathers had penciled down their names and that such
actions would breed further corruption.
The leadership insisted that government was
afraid to take a decisive action against few of those treasurers found to have
corruptly enriched themselves because they have links inside government.
“Otherwise, tell me why government
could not punish one of them if the claim that the treasurers are corrupt is
anything to go by. They are plainly saying that they lack the moral
justification to pursue corruption.”
