Asaba – Delta State governor, Dr. Ifeayi Arthur Okowa is presently troubled, and state of insomnia over N6 Billion wage bill pays to his over 60,000 workers monthly.

 Government sources disclosed that this development may compelled the governor to reduce the workforce to a manageable level; that is, about 5000 workers have been pencilled down to face the labour market.

Reliable sources also said that Okowa would begin the performance of the surgery with the state Sports Commission headed by his elder brother, Chief Anthony Okowa, before moving to other parastatals.

Investigation also revealed that Okowa would take the surgical operation to Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of government with the Ministry of Art and Culture and the Delta State Tourism Board in focus.

Some workers who spoke with our correspondent expressed fear and disappointment over the reckless manner the governor is going about his revenue drive, describing it as ‘madness’.

It was reliably gathered that Okowa is going after those his government perceived to have find their way into the civil service illegally and those whose employment did not follow the civil service rules and guidelines.

The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu, lamented the huge wage bill posing challenges to the government.

Aniagwu told journalists recently that the wage bill of the state runs to the tune of over N7 billion but noted that since some surgical work had been carried out, it has dropped to about N6 billion.

He said, “ we are not in the business of depriving anybody from doing his job. Some persons were also employed for the purpose of filling spaces. What the governor is doing is to redeploy people to where they belong. Some people are just in offices receiving salaries without working for it”, regretting that some persons find their way into the workforce without employment.

Adding, “those who are there for the sake of the salaries are short-changing others and are making it difficult for the Okowa-led government not to fulfill its electioneering promises of road construction, rehabilitating and building of schools, and other social amenities to Deltans”, he lamented.

Reacting, the State chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Ambassador Oke Idawene, challenged Okowa to first perform the surgical operation with his aides numbering 100 before moving to the ministries.

“A leader shows good example but in the case of Okowa, he is a leader with hatred for the people. The country is in a very difficult time and everybody knows that. Why should a governor who claim to be experienced planning to put Deltans into more abject poverty? He asked

Ambassador Idawene lampood the CPS of promoting lies and deceit. If nobody will be sacked, why talk about some who are just in the office for the salary sake?

It would be recall that at the wake of Okowa’s administration, 2000 persons recruited into the state civil service by the immediate past administration of Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan were sacked while about 150 other staff called Edumarshals, who were working to take school age children from the streets were also laid off.