By Ononye VC
The Anambra State Government has resolved a 14 year lingering issue between the defunct Anambra State Water Corporation and Anambra Sate Government which dates back to 2009. The urgency of this matter stems from a judgment by the National Industrial Court of Nigeria on 3rd June, 2019 resulting in the garnishing of Anambra state government’s account.
The Anambra state Water Corporation and Anambra state Environmental Protection Agency (ANSEPA) were functional until there was an increase in minimum wage in 2005.
Efforts made by the union to have discussions before now failed. They resorted to the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) which was between the Union and Anambra state government through the Federal Ministry of Labour. The Union won the IAP award. After that, nothing was paid to the workers and the union resolved to go to the National Industrial Court.
The salaries continued to accumulate because there was no government white paper on the status of the workers.
The state government led by Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR thought it wise to resolve this issue that has lingered for 14 years through an out of court settlement. This led to the constitution of the following committees; the Out of Court Settlement Committee, Technical Committee, Verification Committee, and Biometrics Committee.
The committees’ efforts were instrumental to preventing further garnishing of the state government’s accounts. Specifically, the Out of Court Settlement Committee had four sittings; the Technical Committee had eight sittings. The Verification Committee conducted exercises
from July 12, 2023, to September 26, 2023, and the Biometrics Committee captured all verified staff.
The Governor of Anambra State Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR approved that some of the staff who are found fit be absorbed into service after the conduct of a needs assessment exercise. The Union has agreed to the outcome of the exercise hence the signing of the terms of settlement in the office of the Head of Service on the 6th day of February, 2024 bringing to an end the case which has lingered for 14 years.
Present at the signing were the Head of Service, Barr. Theodora Igwegbe MNI, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Sylvia Ifemeje and the Commissioner for Power, Water Resources and Public Utilities, Mr Julius Chukwuemeka. Others include the Accountant General of the State, Dr. Chukwudi Okoli and the Managing Director Anambra Water Resources, Mr. Ikeobi Ejiofor.
