Umahi suspends permanent secretary for extorting civil servants

Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi has suspended indefinitely the Permanent Secretary of the Office of the Head of Service, Martin Uguru, for exhorting civil servants.

Uguru’s suspension was announced in a statement by the Principal Secretary to the Governor, Chief Emmanuel Obasi.

According to the statement, the suspension took effect from April 1 for collection of kickback from recently promoted civil servants.

“The governor directed the Secretary to the State Government to issue the letter of indefinite suspension to the permanent secretary for his complicity in the scam.

“All heads of administration and persons involved in this exploitation are to forfeit one month’s salary each.

“The concerned heads of administration are hereby directed to fully refund all monies collected from the newly-promoted civil servants.

“The refund should be paid directly to their bank accounts and such officials should submit the bank tellers to the Principal Secretary to the governor within 48 hours.

“Failure to comply with this directive attracts dismissal from the state civil service,” he said.

“That is the proper thing to do rather than resorting to exploitation of the newly-promoted civil servants.”