Edo Assembly secretly employs over 100 workers

By DADA AYOKHAI

The Edo State House of Assembly, EDSHA, has defied all known transparency process in  engagement of staff  to secretly employed more than 100 additional workers amidst claims of overstaffing.

Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, had, at several foras in the past, canvassed for transparency in employment of staff into the state  workforce. 

However, the assembly, in flagrant mockery of the standing orders by the state government, threw caution to the winds and embarked on a job bazaar.

At the end of the job bazaar exercise, the already bloated assembly workforce had swollen by an additional 100 workers, many of them secretly employed.

Most of the newly recruited workers recently besieged the Assembly's Commission office at the Government House in Benin, to undergo the ritual of biometrics. 

Before now, the state government had  lamented that one of the reasons why it had found it so difficult to grant full autonomy to  the legislature is its staggering workforce which also impacts negatively on the state's wage bill.  

Credible sources said the Assembly job bazaar was simply a racket involving most principal officers of the house and some key officials. 

The source further disclosed the entire process was characterised by political considerations, intrigues and back stabbing, stressing mainly job candidates who came with strong connections were  favoured. 

Some of the assembly staff who spoke with our reporter under strict anonymity said it was the handiwork of the politicians, adding they would do anything to undermine the process.