A Chief Nursing Officer in the service of Kuje General Hospital, under the Hospital Management Board of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), H N. Shuaibu has appealed to the FCT Civil Service Commission chairman, Chief Emeka Ezeh to cause her April salary to be paid immediately.
CNO Shuaibu, in a chat with our reporter, said that almost all the 230 civil servants that were declare “ghosts” on May 2, with their April salaries withheld, have been paid except her.
The Nurse, who was on her way to work, said that despite that her name appeared as number 4 on the second list of those that were confirmed to be genuine workers, she still was not part of those that were paid yesterday, May 16.
She said that there has been no information as to why she was excluded from the payment, adding that even in the first list, where 230 of them were declared ABSCONDMENT, she was number 83.
CNO Shuaibu said that since she started work in the hospital under the Hospital Management Board of the FCTA, she had never received verbal query from her superior officers, “instead, I have been receiving commendations and praises. I have risen through the ranks over the years to be Chief Nursing Officer as a result of my dedication and strict adherence to work ethics. Even as you can see, I am on my way to work right now. So, how can I be ghost worker.”
About 230 civil servants in the service of the FCTA, including doctors, nurses, and those in other departments woke up on Friday, May 2 to find on group Whatsapp platform their names on a list tagged: ABSCONDMENT, which was later interpreted to mean GHOST WORKERS.
Members of the various associations went on strike on Tuesday, May 6, to protest against such fiat declaration, especially without the authority making any form of consultation, and for stopping their April salaries.
Following the strike, the FCTA Civil Service Commission quickly reversed the tagg and began to pay the salaries, with an apology from the Commission’s chairman, Chief Emeka Ezeh.
Addressing the aggrieved workers during which time he apologized, Chief Ezeh said that the Commission inadvertently declared them ghosts in its attempt to fish out ghost workers in the service.
The chairman admitted that the action that led to the stoppage of the salaries was taken in error.
He said that the action was part of efforts to identify and eliminate ghost workers, but inadvertently led to the exclusion of legitimate personnel.
“We were trying to clean up the payroll and in the process, some genuine staff were mistakenly affected. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.”
