Emohua Chairman Targets Payroll Fraud, Not Workers’ Salaries – Press Secretary

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By Nwafor Oji Awala 

The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of Emohua Local Government Area, Rivers State, has dismissed allegations that Dr. Chidi Lloyd unlawfully sacked workers or denied them salaries, describing the claims as deliberate misinformation aimed at discrediting the council boss.

Reacting to the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) seven-day warning strike across the 23 councils in the state, the spokesman insisted that no verified employee of Emohua Council has been laid off.

According to him, the administration is only carrying out a payroll cleanup exercise to weed out ghost workers allegedly inserted into the system by the immediate past administration that was removed by the Supreme Court. He added that Dr. Lloyd has instructed the council’s legal department to initiate lawsuits against individuals and groups spreading “damaging falsehoods” about his government.

The union, in a circular dated September 24 and signed by its State Secretary, Comrade Sunday Adeniran, accused Lloyd of treating workers with “callous disdain” and directed all local government employees in Rivers State to down tools from midnight, September 30, until further notice.

The dispute in Emohua has dragged on for years, with Lloyd’s first tenure marred by accusations of unpaid salaries until Governor Siminalayi Fubara intervened to reinstate over 300 workers and clear backlogs. Fresh tensions resurfaced last week when a viral social media post alleged the chairman had again sacked hundreds of staff, a claim the council has firmly denied.

With NULGE now extending its strike action statewide, analysts warn that a local payroll verification effort has snowballed into a full-blown crisis capable of crippling grassroots governance if urgent dialogue is not initiated.


Nwafor Oji Awala 

(c) Prime Heritage Magazine 

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