400 workers of Anambra Water Corporation, ANSEPA die following 14 years of unpaid salary

By Madu Obi

About 400 workers of the defunct Anambra State Water Corporation and Anambra State Environmental Protection Agency (ANSEPA) have allegedly died following unpaid salaries and entitlements that had lasted for 14 years.

The chairman of the State Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Employees (AUCPTRE) Comrade Emmanuel Onyejiaka gave the figure while reacting to a promise by Governor Chukwuma Soludo to intervene in the workers' predicament.

The governor was said to have agreed to pay the workers some fractions of their accumulated salaries and other entitlements before long, although the payment was said to have been put on hold.

Worried by the development, Onyejiaka said if the story was true, it means that their children would not enjoy this year's Christmas.

According to him, the staff of both organisations who died passed through misery as a result of non-payment of their salaries and other entitlements.

He called on the state governor to re-consider his position on the matter and wipe tears away from the eyes of the workers.

"This is a jinx Governor Soludo must break to be a hero", he said, urging the workers still alive not to lose hope on the Soludo's promised intervention."

"I am still optimistic that the governor could do something since he had started the move with verification of the workers," he stated.

Onyejiaka thanked the state Head of Service, the State Attorney General, the Water Agency Managing Director and others who had been assisting in pursuing the case of the helpless workers.

Recall that following the judgment of the National Industrial Court on the matter, which ordered the liquidation of the workers' entitlements, Soludo decided to intervene.