Abia State civil servants yesterday locked out the Accountant-General of the state, Njum Onyemenam from her office in protest of the non-payment of their salaries.
The workers, who said they had been owed salaries for several months, barricaded the entrance to the Accountant-General’s office in the Ministry of Finance and prevented her from entering.
Some of the workers told reporters that they had not been paid salaries for up to five months.
The protest comes a week after Governor Alex Otti promised to pay all outstanding salaries by the end of the year.
The Commissioner for Finance, Mike Akpara, said the government was working to clear the salary arrears, but that it would take some time to do so.
“Some workers were owed over 30 months’ salary arrears by the immediate-past administration of Gov Okezie Ikpeazu,” Akpara said.
However, the Accountant General of Abia State, Njum Onyemenam described the report as fake news and “absolute falsehood”.
Onyemenam, who was in attendance at the Abia State 32nd Anniversary Celebration lecture, which held at the International Conference Centre, Umuahia, said she was never in the office as of the time the purveyors of the fake news were busy spreading their falsehood.
She said that she had approached the entrance gate to the annex of the Government House area housing her office and those of some other government functionaries when she saw a handful of individuals trying to access the gate but were prevented by security men on duty.
The Accountant General took an alternative access to get to her side of the compound without any obstruction.
“There was nothing like chasing me out of my office. As a matter of fact, I was not even in the office. I tried driving into the compound and at the same time a few persons, who had been stopped at the gate tried taking advantage of the moment to gain entry into the compound but they were resisted.
“I then chose to access my office through an alternative access point rather than be caught up in a fracas that I don’t know anything about,” Onyemenam explained.
Meanwhile, the Accountant General said that in line with the directive of the state Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, to pay workers salaries on or before the 28th of every month, “every civil servant in the state has been paid for the month of August”.
According to her, the salaries were paid on Monday, August 28, 2023.
