Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, has sacked the Commissioner for Labour and Productivity, Ford Ozumba.
The Commissioner for Information, Declan Emelumba, in a statement on Saturday, said the sacking was with immediate effect.
Uzodimma was said to have directed Ozumba to hand over all necessary documents to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity immediately.
While there was no reason given for the sack, it may not be unconnected with the rift between the Nigeria Labour Congress and the governor.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that NLC had accused officials of the Uzodimma Government on Tuesday of disrupting its state congress and unleashing mayhem on workers exercising their rights to elect their leaders.
The NLC president, Joe Ajaero, in a statement on Tuesday, had declared the union’s indefinite industrial action in the state.
Ajaero said the NLC had instructed its State Councils across Nigeria to prepare for the State Delegates’ Conference for the election of new leadership in all the council areas of the country.
He alleged that the Imo State Government “sought to influence the outcome of the elections in the state,” by offering gratifications to the delegates to vote for their “chosen candidates.”
“This meddlesomeness was resisted by the delegates who refused the unholy offerings and baits to vote for their chosen candidates,” he said.
The president claimed that the state government was enraged by the delegates’ rejection of their offerings and resorted to violence ostensibly to disrupt the exercise.
“When it was obvious to the government and their goons that their stooges were going to overwhelmingly lose in the elections, thugs who were armed to the teeth descended on the delegates inflicting various degrees of injuries on them, chasing them away and carting away materials meant for the conduct of the elections that was supposed to be at the heart of the conference.”
