By Chidinma Omar


A cross section of responses from experts,  Opinion Leaders, retired and serving senior civil servants on Tuesday described as mischievous and rumour mongering taken too far the allegations by the opposition PDP that Abia State Governor Alex Otti ordered Heads of Service, HoS of the State's 17 LGAs to submit the official seal of their respective LGs to his office.


 "The LG seal by itself is of no use to Gov Otti without the signatures of both the  HoS and Treasurers of the respective LGs. And the HoS and Treasurers are career civil servants who would not willy-nilly append their signatures to any document requiring the seal on the orders of Gov Otti. It's not a command and obey situation, so one is at loss what to make of PDP's controversial allegations. Perhaps the PDP  need to enlighten Abians why Gov Otti has allegedly commandeered the LG seals", they argued 


A retired senior servant who asked not to be named submitted that being in possession of the 17 LGAs seal confers no privilege on Gov Otti. "At best, we see the allegations by the PDP as mischievous and rumour mongering taken too far. Personally, I see the PDP yet to position itself as the opposition party and confront issues from position of strength based on  facts and verifiable information, rather than resorting to marketplace gossip", he told dailyledger.com.ng


In a response to questions from dailyledger.com.ng, the Special Adviser,  Media,  to Gov Otti, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma described PDP's allegations as baseless: "What does Gov Otti need the LGs' seal for?  Can they substantiate their allegations that the LG seals have been commandeered by Gov Otti?', he asked.


Daily ledger.com.ng investigations traced the root of the controversy to the ongoing verification of Abia workers payroll by Otti who contend that the payroll has been padded with ghost workers leading to a bloated payroll, especially in the LG staff payroll.


Ekeoma told dailyledger.com.ng that there are intentional actions by LG Treasurers and HoS to sabotage the ongoing verification exercise to sanitize Abia State civil servants salary account,  "...they are angry and working to frustrate Gov Otti's verification exercise of Abia workers payroll account. One is at loss over their position. Are they for their fellow workers or against them?, he asked rhetorically, stressing that so far less than seven LG Councils have submitted their payroll for verification and from one of LG payroll register, 114 ghost workers were discovered 


Ekeoma proffered that Gov Otti is aware of challenges in the system, and maintain that due process is being followed is resolving same contrary to the mischievous position of the PDP .


"Gov Otti is aware of challenges in the system and seeking resolutions through due process. The HoS and Treasurers of LGs, being civil servants are being taken through the due process, Gov Otti is conscious of all the actions it is taking, at the end of the day both workers and pensioners would be happy", Ekeoma submitted.


Dailyledger.com.ng reports that Abia PDP Vice-chairman/ acting Publicity Secretary, Abraham Amah had posted a statement on his social media arm alleging amongst others that: 


 "Credible, reliable and authentic intelligence reaching the Abia PDP has informed that the governor in a blatant act of illegality has collected the Seals of the 17 local government areas from the local governments’ Heads of Service to whom the immediate past local government Transition Chairmen handed over after their dissolution by the present governor, Dr. Alex Otti"