Sit-At-Home: Enugu govt decries absenteeism among federal workers

The Enugu State Government has appealed to federal workers in the state still observing the sit-at-home on Mondays to desist forthwith.

Ken Chukwuegbo, the principal secretary to Governor Peter Mbah, made the appeal on Monday when he visited the federal secretariat in Enugu, together with the state Head of Service, Kenneth Ugwu.

Mr Chukwuegbo said that the state was losing a lot because of their absence from work on Mondays.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Governor Peter Mbah declared Monday sit-at-home imposed by the Indigenous People of Biafra illegal in the state upon assumption of office in 2023.

Mr Chukwuegbo expressed the need for federal workers to always be at their duty posts on Mondays like their state counterparts.

According to him, there is no sit-at-home in the state any longer.

He said that the state was not under siege, adding that the poor attitude to work by the federal workers in the state was denying the people their services.

“We cannot continue like this.

“If the state workers can go to work on Mondays, I don’t see the reason federal workers cannot do the same.

“Enugu is not under siege, and it is not fair because their actions are giving the state a bad image, which is not acceptable to the government.

“If someone walks into the secretariat on Mondays for an official transaction, they cannot find anybody to attend to them,” he said.

Mr Chukwuegbo, therefore, appealed to the workers to come to the office on the first day of the week, assuring them of their safety.

Responding, the Chairperson, Association of Heads of Federal Establishments in the state, Emeka Nwokoro, said he would continue to appeal to them to always come to work on Mondays.

Mr Nwokoro said that the association in its last meeting allayed the workers’ fear regarding the state of insecurity.

“They asked, ‘If there is security at the secretariat, what about the security of workers coming from sub-urban areas of the state?’

“We will continue sensitising them on the need to come to work on Mondays,” he said.

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A worker, who did not want his name mentioned in the report, said that they were only being cautious about the insecurity in the South-east, given that no one knows when gunmen would strike.

“The federal government should release Nnamdi Kanu from prison to end the insecurity in the region,” the worker said.