PDP calls out Abia Govt to publish names of ghost workers

Abia State’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has issued a challenge to the state administration, demanding that it provide the identities and financial information of the recently uncovered phantom workers in state government.

The opposing party argued that they would only believe the discovery of phantom workers if their identities, bank information, and residences were made public.

Elder Amah Abraham, the Abia PDP Vice Chairman, issued the challenge on Tuesday night.

According to Abraham, Governor Alex Otti and his party, the LP, fabricated the story that 2,300 ghost workers were identified in the state’s civil service and that N220 million was saved in order to garner public sympathy and deflect attention from the serious business of administration.

His full comment ran as follows: “The purported discovery of ghost workers without accompanying proof of the names and account numbers of the ghost beneficiaries is not only childish but a plot that leads to nowhere.”

The Abia People’s Democratic Party has issued a challenge to Governor Alex Otti and his team of discoverers, stating, “Abia PDP challenges Governor Alex Otti and his team of discoverers to publish the names of the over 2,000 ghost workers with their BVN numbers, addresses, and other details and ministries, departments, and agencies that purportedly employed them; to shame them and possibly bring them to justice.”

Abraham claims that throughout Okezie Ikpeazu’s term as governor, all payments were processed through separate bank accounts that required a Bank Verification Number and other identifying information.

Ferdinand Ekeoma, Governor Otti’s special adviser on media and publicity, did not return calls seeking comment.

At the time of this report, he had also not responded to a WhatsApp message that had been sent to him.

A prominent Labour Party member who asked not to be named said the PDP was drowning in its own self-imposed guilt, though.

The LP’s upper echelons suggested that the Abia opposition party let Governor Otti purge the state’s civil service of phantom workers.