Chief Obinna Ichita, an Abia politician, said that the automatic promotion of employees of local governments by the state government was not included in the 2023 Appropriation Act, which was enacted by the state House of Assembly.
The statement was made by Ichita, who is the representative for the Aba South State Constituency, on Friday in Umuahia during a discussion with journalists.
He was responding to the automatic promotion that the state’s governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, had mentioned during a meeting with government servants on Thursday.
The automatic promotion for Local Government employees just one week before the election, he claimed, was a ruse.
“There are workers who are owed up to 36 months salary arrears and never enjoyed any promotion for many years under Ikpeazu’s administration while the governor has not paid workers allowance and other entitlements since he assumed office in 2015 therefore, the announcement is deceptive and cannot fly.
“Also, there is no provision in the 2023 budget to cover the salaries for the promotion.
“If he was genuine, he would have increased the provision for recurrent expenditure for us to assume that he planned to promote workers.”
He thus encouraged the employees to disregard the statement and interpret it as one of the governor’s false promises.