Over 120 staff employed by the Rivers State Local Government Service Commission and posted to Ahoada West Local Government Area (LGA) are now being owed seven months salaries on the orders of the council chairman, Hope Ikiriko.

The affected workers have not received salaries since July 2019

Some of the workers who spoke with the Holygist said the Chairman ordered the stoppage of their payments because they are not aborigines of Ahoada West. Almost 100 of those affected are reportedly of the Ogoni ethnicity in Rivers State and are now alleging that the Chairman’s action is aimed at victimizing the Ogonis who were employed during the Greg Nwiidam era as Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission.

One of the workers affected by the imbroglio alleged the Ahoada West LGA Chairman boasted that no one will compel him to pay the salaries and advised those affected to redeploy to their respective indigenous LGAs to work and receive their payments.

The staff who pleaded for anonymity told the Holygist: “We have suffered so much just because we are from Ogoni. Almost 90% of those affected by this issue are from Ogoni. We have exhausted every means to reason with him and appeal to his conscience but it has yielded no result. The truth is that he has decided to victimize us because of Hon. Greg Nwiidam who left PDP for APC. Some of us were employed during Greg’s time at the Commission.

“He even told us openly that nobody can force him to pay, and that we can go and receive our salaries from our various local government areas. There is nothing we have not done but to no avail, and it seems he is doing this with the support of the governor”.

Another victim who identified himself as Peter, narrating the genesis of the crisis said the LGA boss had shortly after resuming office in 2018 labelled over 200 staff “ghost workers” and ordered that they undergo a verification exercise to confirm their employment status. Some of those affected were from Ahoada West.
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