Following the industrial action embarked by labour unions in Abia State, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and his predecessor Sen. T.A. Orji are currently trading blames over who is responsible for the piled-up salaries and allowances in the state.
Problem started over the remark by the Ikpeazu-led administration that it inherited backlog of unpaid salaries and allowances in the state from the T.A. Orji administration.
But in a swift response, the former Governor in a statement signed by his aide Ifeanyi Umere and titled “IKPEAZU SHOULD CARRY HIS CROSS”, insisted that neither himself nor his administrations were responsible for the staggering salary arrears owed both civil servants, parastatals and pensioners in Abia State.
Senator Orji said by the time his administration came to an end on May 29, 2015, core civil servants were not owed even one month salary arrears. Parastatals he explained, were the ones that were owed between two and four months.
While wondering how Ikpeazu allowed backlog of salaries and allowances to skyrocket to between 35 and 40 months, Orji said, “those who took over from us inherited both assets and liabilities. In this case, government is a continuum. So, if we were owing two to three months, we expected our successors to clear them. This expectation was based on the fact that they received bail out funds from the federal government more than three times running into billions of naira. Again the economy had picked up considerably enabling the outgoing government to chalk up considerable income as can be confirmed from the ministry of finance.”
Meanwhile, Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu on Saturday, recused himself from the fight. The Abia State out-going Governor in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Sir Onyebuchi Ememanka said the Governor will not join issues with any of his predecessors in office.
Ememanka said “Governor Ikpeazu wishes to state that he is proudly carrying the cross of the governance of Abia State and will continue to carry it till his last day in office.”
