The Managing Director of the Imo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (ISOPADEC), Engr. Anthony Okwuosha, has dismissed a publication in a local newspaper to the effect that the State Government has embarked on sacking the staff of the Commission through the Probe Panel set up by the State Governor, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, to investigate the activities of the Commission from 2011 to May 2019.

The newspaper had further claimed that in carrying out the alleged agenda to sack the workers of the Commission, the Probe Panel has begun verifying the certificates of the staff of the Commission via a circular dated August 22, 2019, wherein the workers were given two weeks to submit original copies of their certificates, with the intent to sack them.

Responding to the publication, the ISOPADEC MD said in a statement signed by his S.A. Media and Communication Collins Ughalaa: “We had responded to earlier newspaper publication with similar false claim, and we will not be wasting our time on such incoherent distraction from a drowning people any further.

“Suffice to say, nevertheless, that while the State Government has no agenda to sack the workers of ISOPADEC and has not mandated anyone to sack the workers of the Commission, government must continue to do its work without inhibition.

“Staff verification, including verifying the academic qualifications of workers in which basis they were employed in the first place, is an administrative function of government, and it is a continuous process, especially when we had for 8 years a government that was notorious for violating the Rule of Law and Due Process and for employing people without requisite qualifications.

“We reassert that the ISOPADEC Probe Panel is investigating the activities of the Commission from 2011 to May 2019, including staff recruitment. The intention of the Probe Panel and the request for workers of the Commission to submit the original copies of their certificates is not to sack them as staff verification exercise is a routine administrative procedure anywhere.

“Moreover, it is utterly false that the workers of ISOPADEC are adamant to the request of the Probe Panel to submit the original copies of their certificates. On the contrary, the workers are pleased with the Panel and are cooperating by submitting the required original copies of their certificates without any fuss.

“The Governor of the state, His Excellency Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, is committed to Due Process and the Rule of Law. These were ingredients lacking in the last administration which landed the state into serious problems. The Governor is resolving these problems, and on several fora he had reiterated that he would not witch-hunt anyone and that the panels he has set up would not witch-hunt anyone either. It is a great disserve to the people of the state for anyone to continue to peddle falsehood and set the people on a panic mode for no reason whatsoever.

“The local newspaper and their publishers should know that there are better ways of playing opposition politics and they should apply themselves adequately to it. Their hullabaloo against the state government since losing power suggests a crop of people that were obsessed with power without tangible and meaningful service to the people but rather suppressed the people with the power they had. What they destroyed in 8 years is what Governor Ihedioha is rebuilding and the people are solidly behind him on this project. Their mindless occasional rantings will never be sufficient to distract the Governor and his government from restoring to the people what the locusts had eaten.”