The outgoing government of Governor Godwin Obaseki has denied the claim by the All Progressives Congress, APC, that the government is converting political appointees into full time civil servants.
DAILY POST recalls that Prince Kassim Afegbua, a chieftain and member of the APC transition committee had in a statement alleged that the outgoing government of Obaseki was converting political appointees to full time civil servants.
Afegbua opined that the action of the government was geared towards overburdening the incoming government of the governor-elect, Senator Monday Okpebholo, with huge recurrent expenditure, when he (Obaseki) was aware that the state is already bogged down by huge debt burden.
Reacting on behalf of the state government, Crusoe Osagie, Special Adviser to Governor Obaseki on Media and Project noted that employment into the Edo State Public Service since the onset of the outgoing administration has focused on serving the people.
According to him: “We are unfortunately seeing a disturbing trend from the APC even before they assume government position.
“They have started making spurious claims that the state is overburdened by debt and are now threatening that they will sack workers.
“In his recent statement, Kassim Afegbua, a member of the transition committee threatened that they are ready to cut down the number of workers engaged in Edo State because they need more money to themselves.
“This is evidently a sign of the level of thinking in the APC, where all they care about is what gets into their pocket and not what is best for Edo State.
“The comments about the government employing workers was misguided noting that Government started engaging new workers across various spectrum of governance over six years ago, a fact that can be confirmed by civil servants in the state.
“So it is disingenuous to start claiming at this last minute that the government is now just only employing new workers to set traps for the new government.”
