Abia State ministry of environment, Umuahia, was on Wednesday, rocked by a protest by some aggrieved staff of the ministry who claimed that more than eight million naira had been deducted from their salaries in the past three years.
According to the staff who flaunted different placards, the money was deducted and dedicated to an account sometime in 2021 under a Christmas welfare program, adding that the deductions have been going on without the staff being refunded.
The angry staff, who begged Governor Alex Otti to intervene in their plight, took their protest to the office of the Commissioner for Environment, Philemon Ogbonna but could not meet him as he was not in office.
According to them, though the deductions of the money started in 2021, some staff still noticed the discrepancy any time they received their salaries.
The workers fingered some powerful staff of the ministry.
One of the staff who spoke about the money said that even some retired staff of the ministry are also victims of the Christmas money, adding that such retirees have not been able to recover their deducted money.
“About four panels have been set up on this matter and nothing has happened. The other time they claimed that armed robbers stormed here and shot in the air and carried money but we never heard any gun shot. They just embezzled our money”, said a staff member simply identified as Onyeoma.
They called for the implementation of the reports of the Panels previously set up on the matter to ensure that the deducted money is refunded to their rightful owners.
Abia State ministry of environment is yet to issue any statement in reaction to the protest but a senior staff of the ministry said that the alleged deducted welfare money may have happened under the past administration.