Chairman of Ahoada West Local Government Area, Hope Ikiriko has dismissed insinuations that three of his children were employed at the same time with the over 100 embattled staff he has allegedly refused to recognize, but continues to pay them.
The Ahoada West council Chairman also said the 'Ikirikos' cited by the President of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Clifford Paul are not related to him.
In a live program monitored by City News on Saturday, Ikiriko said: "My children are not on the payroll of Ahoada West. Paul did not act as a Rivers man. If he does not know, we have Ikirikos in Kalabari, Okrika and other parts of Rivers State. If you see any Ikiriko on any document, it is not just Hope Ikiriko.
"I have close associates who are legitimately employed in the LGA and they have their documents to show for it”.
Evangelist Hope Ikiriko also explained that an audit conducted by the Ahoada west council showed that many of the embattled workers neither had proper documentation, some falsified their age, the names of many did not appear on the service nominal roll and they were brought in through the back door by a certain fraudulent cartel in the local government civil service. He claimed some of the workers paid as high as N300k to secure the now controversial job.
"There was an audit and there was no exception except those who did not appear. All the people who claimed to be members of staff faced the panel and they brought their documents. We are acting on facts and not allegations.
"In 2016, a secular was issued that every junior worker under level 7 should be posted to their own Local Government Area. We have the secular and the list of the mass posting with us. How is it that the names of these people who claim not to have received salaries are not on the list? How did they find themselves in Ahoada West? Take an example of some of the worker who claims not to have been paid. He was employed in 2013, he is a level 4 worker from Khana. How did he find himself to Ahoada West from Khana?
"I have it in good authority that most of these principal officers pay some of the workers whom they brought in through the back door in cash. While others go to the bank for their salaries, some of them are given cash. Some of the workers have also confirmed that those periods that their salaries did not reflect in the bank, they were receiving cash”.
Ikiriko who denied speculations that he intends to sack to sack the over 100 staff so as to replace them with his croonies said he has not employed a single person since he assumed office in 2018 despite the bribes offered by certain unnamed persons to sway him.
He said: "People have been coming to bring money to the council to buy employment and as I speak, I have not employed a single soul for over two years. How can a council have a staff set of over 1,600 persons? I have also said it repeatedly that these persons have not been sacked but the reason why the transaction is suspicious is because of the evidence before us”.
Recall NULGE has directed it's members across the 23 LGAs to embark on strike in solidarity with the embattled workers of the Ahoada West council who are allegedly been owed 13 months salaries.
