By  Enyim Enyim

ANAMBRA State Broadcasting Service, ABS, may have concluded plans to retrench 200 of its staff. Besides, 40 guest artistes were also sacked by the state government on the grounds that their services were no longer needed.

Confirming the development, Commissioner for Information and Culture, Chief Maja Umeh, said government took the decision because many of the staff were given appointments without due process.

Umeh, who said the exercise was to enhance productivity, hinted that a committee had been set up to review the appointment of all staff, with a view to fishing out those whose appointments were irregular.

He denied that the retrenchment of staff was because of the new national minimum wage which government was yet to accept for implementation.

According to him, government is committed to the new minimum wage but need additional N3 billion to be able to implement it.

He noted that the state government’s present wage bill stood at N2 billion, and appealed to the Federal Government to increase its federal allocation by N3 billion to enable it pay the minimum wage.

Investigation by Vanguard showed that the same wind is blowing at the council level where staff are gripped by fear of looming retrenchment exercise.