The All Progressives Congress and the Edo State government clashed on Wednesday over fresh recruitment into the state civil service.
The APC Transition Committee member, Kassim Afegbua, in a statement, raised the alarm over the move which was described as overburdening the incoming administration with huge recurrent expenditure.
The government, however, responded that the incoming administration was making spurious claims that the state was overburdened by debt and now threatening it would sack workers.
Following the victory of the APC candidate, Monday Okpebholo, in the September 21, 2024 governorship election, Governor Godwin Obaseki’s tenure will end on November 11, 2024
The incoming governor will assume office on November 12, 2024.
The transition committee on the government side and that of the APC had been having altercations over governance in the state.
In the recent altercation, the APC committee statement read, “It has come to our notice that Governor Obaseki is presently converting his Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants 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 energise the civil service. He also refused to set up the Civil Service Commission until two weeks ago, in the twilight of his administration.
“We are alerting the public to be aware of Governor Obaseki’s deliberate act 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.”
In his response, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media Project, Crusoe Osagie, knocked the APC for insinuating that the government was overburdening the state’s workforce by employing more workers in recent weeks.
“The Edo State government’s employment into the public service since the outset of the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration has focused on serving the people.
“A huge knock goes to the All Progressives Congress who 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 government position. 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 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 comments about the government employing workers are misguided. The government started engaging new workers across various spectrums of governance over six 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,” the government’s statement read.
