BY Anayo Okoli
Umuahia— Abia-born female civil servants married to non-indigenes who were recently sacked from the state public service are being reinstated upon evidence of being divorced from their non- indigene husbands.

The reinstatement of the divorcees is part of the review of the controversial indigenisation of the state public service that also incorporates the reinstatement of non-indigenes who won automatic appointment on completion of the one year National Youth Service Corp, NYSC programme in the state.

The review which was done by a committee constituted by the state government, Vanguard learnt, was still undecided on the fate of Abia daughters who are still married to non-indigenes.

Also, non-indigenes from states outside the South-East zone were being considered for reinstatement. A committee headed by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Umeh Kalu, with membership drawn from top civil servants reviewed the exercise.

However, apart from this group, the government insisted that all others from the Southeast states of Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo should go.

The committee said it reviewed the disengagement exercise “reciprocally”, meaning that states that had not earlier disengaged Abia indigenes from their civil service would not have their sacked indigenes reinstated.

The committee is also said to be still considering “our daughters who are married to men from outside our state”.

Meanwhile, Governor Theodore Orji has commended the state workers for not going on strike while the negotiations over the implementation of the new minimum wage for its workers lasted.

Orji who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Ugochukwu Emezue yesterday said the Governor was happy with the workers for their patience while the negotiations lasted, and urged them to reciprocate Government gesture by being diligent and working hard to move the service forward.

According to Emezue, Governor Orji said that it was because of his care for the welfare of the workers in the state that he approved the N20, 100 minimum wage which he said would be across board.

Emezue said that with the approval of the N20,100, Orji had justified the disengagement of some non-indigenes from the state, saying that the exercise had saved Government money to be able to pay the workers more.