Following the recent violence-riddled gubernatorial election, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has denied allegations that the state government was planning to terminate the appointments of civil servants in the state that supported the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) during the election.
At the monthly Transparency Briefing which held at the Government House on Thursday, the governor, represented by the Deputy Governor, Real Admiral John Jonah (rtd), said it was untrue that the government had marked 500 civil servants for sack, as was being circulated in certain quarters, Daily Post reported.
Dickson said it was wrong for civil servants to display partisanship in an election, but dismissed the allegation that the government’s ongoing verification of workers in the state was targeted at retrenching the supposed APC supporters.
He said “On the issue raised by some 500 workers in the state, to the best of my knowledge, there is no plan by the government to retrench any worker.
“However, we must add that although the partisan posture of some workers during the election was wrong, there is no plan to sanction or retrench anyone over that.
“The verification being conducted by the establishment committee is to look inwards and examine ourselves as an administration. We are doing this due to the consistent deficits we are experiencing. This is why there are no government officials on the committee.
“We have asked them to help check and also find other ways of raising revenues. If they come out to say, the figure we have is correct, so be it. If they say we have some addition, we will check again. Things at the moment are hard and it is a challenging moment for us as a state.”