“I never asked to be reabsorbed” – Impeached Enugu Deputy Governor returns September salary

Impeached Deputy Governor of Enugu state, Sunday Onyebuchi has returned to the state government’s treasury the September 2014 salary paid into his account. He described the payment credited to him as a Deputy Director in the state civil service as “Greek gift”. Onyebuchi wondered what the State Government intends to achieve by paying him salary as civil servant after he was “unlawfully impeached” for rearing poultry at his official residence at the Enugu Government House. The state government after allegedly sponsoring the Deputy Governor’s impeachment, had in a letter signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Patrick Okolo redeployed him to his office as Deputy Director on grade level 15.Continue...
In the state government’s letter with reference no ENS/SSG/T.1/1dated September 1, Okolo told Onyebuchi that the deployment followed his “exit from political position which situation has ended your leave of absence”. Expressing surprise that the government paid into his account the sum of sixty one thousand and sixty seven naira, twenty six kobo (N61,067,26) as salary for September 2014, Onyebuchi stated that he disengaged from civil service in 2007 to contest elections and had never asked to be reabsorbed. In a letter to the Secretary to state government dated October 8, 2014 titled “Refund of money mischievously paid to me”, in which he attached treasury receipt of the state government indicating the refund, Onyebuchi described the “haste to dash” him salary for job not done as “merely preparatory to some other sinister step which will soon be disclosed”. He recalled that he had on September 5, 2014 in his reply to the letter conveying his deployment, reminded the state government that he disengaged from civil service of Enugu state in 2007 in compliance with the constitutional requirement to be eligible to join a political party and contest elections. “I further explained that your letter deploying me to your office was baseless. It is therefore a surprise that you went ahead and paid into my account the sum of sixty one thousand and sixty seven naira, twenty six kobo (N61,067.26) as salary as fraudulent as I did not report for work anywhere, did not work anywhere and therefore did not earn any salary. “It is unfortunate that even though I have been deliberately denied of my allowances as Deputy Governor for the months of July and August 2014, there has been an indecent haste to “dash” me a salary for the month of September 2014, for a job I ceased to hold as far back as 2007”, Onyebuchi said. He continued: “Although I believe that the unearned salary was paid to me in bad faith, I have returned it in good faith. See attached Enugu state treasury receipt no. 000796193 as evidence of the refund. I advise that you stop any further payments of unearned salaries into my account as this amount to fraud”. He stated that since his removal from office, he had never applied to the civil service commission for reinstatement nor approval received from the commission, stressing that “Civil servants are not granted leave of absence to join political parties and contest election”. It is unclear if the meagre N61,067.26 paid to Onyebuchi as a Deputy Director on Grade Level 15 in the State Civil Service, is the the actual salary those still in service take home. Further investigations revealed that labour leaders in the state had recently raised the alarm over poor remuneration of workers in the state.