By Amos Aar
CASUAL staff of Benue State Government House have cried out that they have not been paid their monthly stipend for five months, subjecting them to hunger and all forms of hardship.
Four of the casual staff, who spoke with National Record under the cover of anonymity for fear of persecution, pointedly accused the Permanent Secretary, Government House Administration, Mr Moses Tor Leva, for the protracted delay.
The staff alleged that the delay is due to a fraud perpetrated under the permanent secretary which provoked Governor Hyacinth Alia to stop the payment in order to reform the payment system.
According to one of them, while the permanent secretary had appealed to the governor to increase the stipend of the casual staff from ten thousand naira (N10,000) to twenty thousand naira (N20,000) each per month, when the governor upgraded the stipend as requested, the permanent secretary allegedly paid the workers only N10,000 and pocketed the balance.
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National Record gathered that following the alleged embezzlement, Governor Alia reportedly stopped the payment of the entire stipend to the casual staff and directed that all casual appointments be converted to permanent status to end the alleged corruption.
“The governor even wanted to remove the permanent secretary from Government House because of what he did. But a Rev. Fr. who is a very close friend to the governor intervened seriously and he decided to allow the permanent secretary stay, pending when normal transfer for permanent secretaries in the state will be done so that he will be moved out of the Government House through transfer.
“But for now, he is just there as a picture. He is not getting anything again because they have stopped giving even overhead there. That is why you can’t even get a piece of paper in that place to type documents because all financial sources have been blocked as a result of the fraud.” the source revealed.
On the scrapping of the casual staff system at Government House, the source explained: “The governor had a meeting with us in November last year and he told us that he no longer wanted casual workers in Government House. So, all staff should be converted to permanent status and directed that our names be compiled, and I believe they have submitted the names to him.
Asked whether they will be paid for the accumulated five months or just one month as it was the case in October, 2023 and whether they will be paid for the nine months they served as substantive staff before Governor Alia ordered that they should revert to casual status on the ground that his predecessor, Samuel Ortom, had employed them at the twilight of his two-term administration only to give him burden, the source was unsure.
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“I don’t know whether he is going to pay us the whole money, beginning from the time we were employed up to date,” the casual staff responded.
National Record gathered from another casual staff that some casual staff, numbering less than ten, had been left frustrated by three consecutive administrations in the state – Gabriel Suswam, Samuel Ortom and now the incumbent administration of Governor Hyacinth Alia.
According to the source, some of them were first engaged under ex-Gabriel Suswam at the tail end of his administration in 2015 but exited office without paying them anything. When ex-Governor Ortom took over from Suswam in 2015, he converted them to casual staff on the ground that they were employed at the twilight of Suswam’s government just to pose unnecessary burden on him.
They remained as casual status until when Ortom was about to complete his 8-year tenure before he gave them full employment afresh in September 2022 and paid them two months salaries at once. Apart from the 2-month salary paid them, the source said Ortom did not pay them a dime again until he left office on May 29, 2023.
“Even when Governor Alia assumed office, we continued to borrow money from people to go to Government House and work from 8am to 6pm to keep his government moving in line with instruction given us by the permanent secretary, Government House Administration to please the new administration.
“Unfortunately, barely two weeks into office, Governor Alia sacked us and directed that we should be reverted to casual status.
“Now, even our salary as casual staff is being owed for over five months and we can’t fend for our children as I speak with you, the casual staff lamented.
When National Record asked the staff officer of Government House, Mr Richard Agan, on phone why the casual staff have not been paid for 5 months even as Governor Alia has been paying civil servants regularly, Agan said he would call back shortly and ended the call but he never called back as at press time.
National Record also contacted Mr Leva, the Permanent Secretary, Government House Administration, to find out why the stipends were being owed for many months and to get his reaction on the allegation of fraud levelled against him, but he ended the phone call after listening to the questions.
Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Tersoo Kula, did not respond to a chat sent to him via WhatsApp, seeking to confirm if the casual staff’s stipend was increased from N10,000 to N20,000 within the period under review.
