Angry Benue Local Government Workers Chase Legislators Who Came ForStaff Screening Away.

Gov. Ortom

Angry local government workers in Benue state on Tuesday, October 27, chased away members of the state House of Assembly who visited the headquarters of 23 council areas to perform their legislative duties.


According to Daily Trust, the lawmakers during a plenary session last week insisted that they had the constitutional responsibility to make laws, investigate any matter and carry out oversight functions on the verification exercise of local government staff.
The idea was introduced following the cries of workers at the grassroots, who were subjected to what they called needless and stressful biometric exercises by the state government in order to detect ghost workers.

The aim of the exercise was to pave the way for the disbursement of the bailout fund the government had received from the Central Bank.

Local government workers on Tuesday, October 27, violently resisted the lawmakers with some physically protesting while others stayed away.


Though none of the workers agreed to speak, those who spoke said it was one exercise too many by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government in the state.




Terkimbi Ikyange, the Speaker of the State Assembly, who spoke to journalists in Makurdi, said that the workers misunderstood their good intention and responded negatively. The speaker described the workers’ position on the matter as rather “unfortunate.”



Ikyange said: “We heard some people were termed “ghost workers” while they were physically present at the other screening exercises. We wanted to confirm this and many more issues. But as you can see, soon, many of them would be sacked. Then, they would start running to us (assembly) for intervention.”



The insinuation had been on the basis that there were indications that the governor made the inflation with the ulterior motive of siphoning money for selfish purposes.