The Niger East People’s Forum has described as unacceptable, the recent civil service reform undertaken by the Niger State government, which saw the reduction in the number of permanent secretaries from 54 to 25 in the state.

The forum claimed that the people of Niger East senatorial zone which gave the present administration 100 per cent of its votes during the last general election was heavily short changed in the exercise.

The forum in a news briefing in Minna at the weekend described as a complete lie, the claim by the government that the 25 permanent secretaries recently appointed during the reform exercise, spread across the 25 local governments in the state.

The forum, which is made up eminent personalities from the geo-political zone of the state accused the government of being economical with the truth over the claim, saying that the reforms were not only lopsided, but unfair and unjust to the people of Niger East.

Chairman of the forum, George Koce while addressing the media said that the zone was grossly shortchanged in the appointments of permanent secretaries and, therefore, warned that the goodwill of the people who had supported the party (APC) from the grassroots to the national level should not be taken for granted.

It would be recalled the government had two weeks ago announced that after the recent civil service reform carried out in the state, the number of permanent secretaries had been pruned down from 54 to 25 with the 25 local governments in the state having one each.

But the Forum, through its Chairman, Koce described this claim as a complete lie and accused the state government of insincerity in the appointments, pointing out that the appointments were shared among few local governments with Niger East senatorial district being heavily marginalised.

According to him, only four permanent secretaries were appointed from the nine local government areas of the zone, while more than half of the 25 appointees came from the eight local governments in the Niger South senatorial district. The remaining seven permanent secretaries were appointed from the eight local government areas that make up the Niger North senatorial district.

He said that even in the Niger South zone with 14 permanent secretaries, six of those appointed came from one local government.

“This is totally unacceptable; it smacks a deliberate agenda for the isolation of Niger East from the present administration in the state. The goodwill of the people of Niger East Senatorial district should not be taken for granted.

“Niger State Civil Service provides that anyone who occupies the position of permanent secretary for eight years should retire. However, in contradiction to the above, the recent public service reforms in the state show that some permanent secretaries who have served above the period of eight years were retained, while those eligible were demoted and redeployed. This is unfair and unjust,” the submitted.

The forum therefore called on the state government to as a matter of urgency reverse the lopsided rationalisation for a fair and just consideration for one permanent secretary per local government area.

The forum advised that subsequent appointments and deployments should be much rationally considered while calling on the state house of assembly to quickly address the imbalance observed in the recent appointment of permanent secretaries to safeguard future imbalance.