Umuahia— Chief Dan Egbeogu, Chairman, Abia Local Government Service Commission, has said that the suspension of local government officials in the state was aimed at sanitising the councils.

Four local government Heads of Service (HOS) and Treasurers from four local government areas of the state were recently suspended.

The affected officials were said to have mobilised their workers against the state government’s directive for the biometric capture of council workers aimed at identifying ghost workers.

The state’s House of Assembly had set up a panel to investigate the matter and the lawmakers recommended their suspension while the other HOS and treasurers were redeployed to the ministry.

Egbeogu said: “The government of Abia State is determined to restore sanity to the local government system. That is why that action was taken. Before now, you didn’t hear anybody doing such things.”

“Now the four were sent on suspension. Four treasurers, four HOS (Head of Service) from these four local governments who were seen to have breached the law, gone against rules, gone against lawfully given instructions.”

“When an instruction is lawfully given and somebody decides to flout it then the person is punished. That will serve as a deterrent to others.

“So what we are trying to instill discipline in the system is by taking the action we have taken so far. So it shows you it is not business as usual.

Egbeogu expressed regret that the local government system in the country was in ruins “because the operators cannot come to terms with the objectives of the founding fathers.

“The system has been abused and that is why nothing seems to be working at the grass roots.”

He said the state government was trying its best to ensure that officials of the local government system lived above greed and self aggrandizement, adding that this was to meet the yearnings of the people.

“The objectives of the local government system in the country are a noble initiative with good intentions.  I can tell you that those of us in the South East are doing well, but more still needs to be done.”

Egbeogu said the state government’s decision to sack non-indigenes from its civil service was also done in good intention to remove the burden accompanying the payment of the N18,000 minimum wage.

“Then, the rate of unemployment was really escalating in our state. We were churning out graduates from universities, polytechnics, secondary schools and these people do not have any job to do.

“They are roaming around while other people from other states came and occupied everywhere.

“So we felt that we could also  achieve a measure of success in that way of providing jobs if we can at least reduce the workload and also create space for our people who are teeming unemployed Abians.”

Egbeogu said that the disengagement was still ongoing, stressing that the local government system in the state would witness an unprecedented employment opportunities thereafter.