urges protection of civil service
Former governor of Edo state and immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole yesterday said the civil service as an institution must be preserved even as he revealed how a former Secretary to State Government (SSG) saved a civil servant from being dismissed who later became the Head of Service of the state.
Oshiomhole stated this when he paid a condolence visit to the family of Simon Imuekheme who retired as HoS under his administration and later appointed as SSG.
He said Imuekheme “will be remembered for many things. When you say what someone will be remembered for, I think those he affected one way or the other. He affected them differently. I have told my own story.
“Now, there are people in the civil service who will have their own stories. There are people in the Edo communities that will have their own stories.
“There was a man I thought should be dismissed because we thought that he cannot cope with our pace of work and a couple of things we didn’t think was right but Imuekemhe was concerned.
“The civil servants must be protected and having worked in the system, he knew how to protect them.
“And one of such people he protected, when I wanted to appoint a Head of Service when there was a vacancy, i wanted to make sure that I don’t follow any sentiment and I am not influenced by any group or interest. I just wanted to make a decision based on who is the most senior civil servants.
“So I just called for the files, went through all of them and I saw the most senior person. I called the Secretary to the State Government and said, announce this person as the new Head of Service and when the name was announced, those who knew him came to me and said that was the man that you asked Dr. Imuekemhe to sack but they have to do more of enquiries and in the end, they eventually found a way to keep him in the system. And I ended up appointing the man, a Head of Service.”