Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Governor Nyesom Nwike sacks 344 staff of Rivers State Polytechnic. More workers in the state are also to go

Faced with the grim realities of huge overhead and political expediency, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is wielding the big axe. On Wednesday, 17 June,the state government, through the Ministry of Education sacked of 344 lecturers and non-academic staff of the Rivers State Polytechnic, RIVPOLY, Bori, recently employed by the state government under the immediate past administration of the former Governor Chibuike Amaechi.

Just when Rivers people were digesting the news of the sacked lecturers and some non –academic staff of RIVPOLY and their appeals to Governor Wike to look into their case dispassionately, he also announced the disbandment of the Rivers State Road Transport Management Agency,TIMARIV through a press statement signed by Mr Opunabo Inko Tariah, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity. The Governor directed that henceforth any member of the public, who sees any person impersonating as an official of the disbanded agency and harassing members of the public should be arrested and reported to the nearest police station for prosecution.

•Gov Wike: Wieding the big axe

TIMARIV was established by the immediate the Amaechi administration due to the outcry of members of the public over traffic congestions in Port Harcourt, the state capital and environs under the Road Traffic Law of 2009, but commenced operation in 2010. TIMARIV was cloned after the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency, LASTMA. Part of its mandate include: Control of road users, deter road users from committing road traffic offences and apprehend traffic offenders among others.

Ironically, the disbandment of TIMARIV may not attract public sympathy and condemnation, especially from victims of the highhandedness of its officials. It is often said that in the City of Port Harcourt: “The fear of TIMARIV is the beginning of wisdom”. The agency has had a chequered history. Since it was established, officials of the agency have been accused of highhandedness, extortion and corruption by members of the public, especially motorists.

One Kingsley Ogbonnda, a private businessman, a victim, narrated how he was rushing home to collect his ATM card off Airport road after dropping off his pregnant wife whom he had rushed to the Military Hospital. On his way home, he had a call from his wife that the hospital needed money as deposit. At the Rumuokoro roundabout, he was apprehended for making call while driving by TIMARIV officials. Despite appeals made to the official that his wife was in labour at the Military hospital, the officials turned deaf ears. His car was eventually impounded and taken to their makeshift parking office, beside Eliozu Bridge, off East West road.

Ogbonnda said the officials extorted N100,200 as fine from him. They itemized his fines as impoundment fee, traffic offence, making calls while driving, psychiatric test fee, etc, three days after.

A journalist with one of the national dailies but does not want his name in print said he parked his vehicle beside a supermarket in the state capital where he went to pick a few toiletries. A few minutes later, the security men ran into the supermarket to alert him that officials of TIMARIV were already jacking up his car to be towed away for allegedly parking on the pedestrian walkway. Before he could come out, the officials had jacked up his car on the towing van and were zooming off. All appeals and explanations fell on deaf ears. He had to cough out N85, 000 the next day to claim his car.

•Amaechi, former governor

Since East-West road was dualized by the immediate past Dr Goodluck Jonathan administration, that did not make room for U-turns at short distances, TIMARIV officials had been having reaping bumper harvests from motorists who ran against traffic. Interestingly, a huge chunk of the monies realised as fines go into the private pockets of individuals and not into the coffers of government.

The TIMARIV staff had been embarking on industrial actions protesting against non-payment of salaries since October 2014. The protesting staff of the agency constantly called for the removal of the top shots in the organisation accusing them of corruption. Due to the difficulty in paying their salaries, as compared with the verifiable evidences of corruption in the agency, Governor Amaechi directed the agency to be self-sustaining. The official directive of government was like giving them licence to vent their venom on hapless motorists.

In what looks like preparing the ground for hurricane Wike to sweep the organisation, a few weeks ago, officials of the Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority (TIMARIV) called on Wike to declare a state of emergency on the agency.

The call was contained in a communiqué signed by the Branch Chairman, Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), TIMARIV Chapter, Rivers State, Comrade Igenewari Ketuphel and the Secretary, Comrade Wokocha Kelechi and issued at the end of an emergency general meeting held at their head office, Moscow road, Port Harcourt.

The communiqué stated that the Rivers State Government should carry out a comprehensive and independent audit to x-ray the act of rascality and impunity by the management of the authority which led to the owing of over seven months backlog of staff salaries, and the gross mismanagement of the outfit, as the assets and funds of the agency were diverted to private pockets.

The communiqué further urged government to direct the management of TIMARIV to release the salaries of their union executives that have been unlawfully withheld since October 2014, adding that relevant security agencies should as a matter of urgency investigate the continued threat to lives of their members and subsequent killing of one of their frontline unionists.

It appealed to the governor to also look at the demands of TIMARIV workers to integrate and regularise the salaries of their officers into the central payroll system of the Rivers State government as practiced by other states that have functional traffic management agencies.

Wike did not only disband the Agency, he also directed all vehicles impounded by the Agency be released to their owners immediately without the owners paying a dime.

•TIMARIV personnel doing their morn

Less than 24 hours after the disbandment of TIMARIV, Wike also announced the sacking of all the Governing Councils and boards of all state tertiary institutions in the state. They were also sacked on Thursday, 18 June 2015, in a terse statement endorsed by Opunabo Inko-Tariah, Special Adviser, Media and Publicity.

The affected institutions include; Rivers State School of Science and Technology, Ignatius Ajuru University, School of Nursing, School of Health Science. He warned the affected Boards and Governing Councils not to dare flout the order, itherwise, they would be dealt with.

The Rivers State Chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC in a statement signed by Mr Chris Finebone, the state Publicity Secretary, accused Governor Wike of an obsession to conduct a vendetta against every good legacy left behind by his predecessor, Amaechi. This made him to sack 344 lecturers and other staff duly employed by the authorities of the Rivers State Ministry of Education for the services of the Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori.

APC publicity secretary claimed that the employment of the sacked lecturers and staff by the Amaechi administration commenced as far back as 2013 and followed all due process as they were painstakingly taken through rigorous examinations and several documentations, including biometric capture to ease their working life.

The affected lecturers continue to insist that their recruitment followed due process. Governor Wike would hear none of that. He told the Rivers State Ministry of Education that the engagement of the 344 lecturers and other personnel be terminated in one fell swoop and that the Rector of the Polytechnic, Obianko Elechi, should immediately embark on a compulsory leave.

As far as APC in the state was concerned the action of Government was a confirmation that the Governor was out on a vendetta mission. Curiously, unlike in the previous cases, where heads of agencies were invited by the Rivers House of Assembly to answer questions on Policy decisions, the Provost of the RIVPOLY was not quizzed on the floor of the house before the hammer fell. The opposition party also alleged that the government had concluded plans to sack all non-indigenes recruited as part of the 13,200 teachers carried out by the administration of Amaechi a couple of years ago. It said that when this happens, it will be in line with Wike’s threat during the campaigns that if he became governor he would do away with all non-indigenes who benefitted from that massive recruitment exercise by former governor Amaechi.

Observers are of the opinion that Wike’s hurricane may not be unconnected with huge wage bill in the face of nosediving revenue into the state coffers. Others are however of the opinion that Governor Wike is under intense pressure to give political appointments to staunch members of his political camp who are getting restive to benefit from their political struggle that uprooted APC and installed him as governor.

In recent thanksgiving ceremony by members of the Grassroot Development Initiative, GDI, the political pillar of Wike, members raised the issue of lack of patronage. Ambassador Desmond Akawor, the Director General of Governor Wike’s campaign organisation of the PDP, had to calm their nerves by telling them that Wike is not someone who will use and dump people.

However, there is a growing apprehension that swelling up the rank of the unemployed could lead to escalation of crimes in the state, especially kidnappings and other sundry vices.