JUST-IN: No work on Mondays, no salary — Imo government

• The sit at home order normally goes with restriction of movement across the five south east States.
• The IPOB made the declaration some years ago to demonstrate its displeasure with the detention of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

The Imo government has warned that civil servants will have their salaries forfeited and face additional punishments if they miss work on Mondays.

BACKSTORY 

In 2021, the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ordered a sit-at-home in the south-east every Monday until Nnamdi Kanu, its leader, is released from the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

After some months, IPOB ordered the suspension of the Mondays’ sit-at-home due to the violence perpetrated by hoodlums enforcing the order.

In June 2023, Nnamdi Kanu, leader of IPOB, ordered an end to the weekly sit-at-home in the south-east.

Despite the suspension of the order, hoodlums still enforce it every Monday in the south-east zone.

Shops and offices are usually shut down during Mondays’ sit-at-home order.

Kanu is standing trial on a seven-count charge bordering on treasonable felony as preferred against him by the federal government.

STATE GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVES

In a statement on Tuesday, Declan Emelumba, Imo commissioner of information, said civil servants for inexplicable reasons absent themselves from duties on Mondays.

Emelumba said the government has started checking defaulting workers for possible sanctions.

“The Government of Imo State has observed with dismay that some civil servants, for inexplicable reasons, absent themselves from duties, especially on Mondays,” the statement reads.

“This is totally unacceptable, moreover since such civil servants neither obtain permission nor have authorisation of their superiors to abstsent from duty, thereby making their conduct illegal and unprofessional.

“Consequently, the government will henceforth view such a rascally conduct as a direct challenge to its authority, which will attract sanctions.

“Going forward, His Excellency the governor of Imo State Sen Hope Uzodimma, has directed that any civil servant who absents himself /herself from duty on Mondays or any other day for that matter will lose his/ her salary in addition to other punishments that may be recommended against him/her.

“Consequently, permanent secretaries and heads of parastatals and heads of agencies of government are hereby directed to immediately commence daily roll calls of workers to ensure that those who disobey this order are meant to suffer the consequences.”