Okowa Flays Mismanagement Of Delta Line, Vindicates THEWILL

SAN FRANCISCO, December 14, (THEWILL) – Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has expressed dismay at the mismanagement of the Delta Transport Company (Delta Line) and decried the N400 million debt burden of the once promising transporter.

Okowa spoke on Monday in Asaba, the Delta State capital when workers of the company under the aegis of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service, Recreational and Technical Service Employees (AUPCTRE) visited him at government house.

THEWILL had over the weekend in a news report exposed how current General Manager, Mr. Isaiah Eyione and the Chief Accountant, Mr. Josiah Isheke, plunged the company into debts after mismanaging over N4.5 billion in state grants and owing about six months in staff salaries.

He said that it was disheartening that the situation had led to non-payment workers' salaries for months.

“I will not deliberately ask that workers should be owed salaries; I will not deliberately say workers should not be paid. But to say that the company is indebted to banks to the tune of about N400 million is sad.

“It is unfortunate that workers of Delta Line have not been paid their salaries for six months,” Okowa said.

The governor noted that since Delta Line is a commercial entity, monies generated by the company were expected to be ploughed back into the business.

He said that it was unfortunate that in spite of the intervention of the government in the provision of vehicles, the management could not keep the company afloat.

Okowa commended the union for opting for dialogue and promised that appropriate actions would be taken to remedy the situation.

He urged the workers to be patient, saying that he had constituted a panel to find out why the management could not effectively run the company.

Earlier, Mr. David Ofoeyeno, Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Delta chapter, had told the governor that though the issue (non-payment of workers salaries) was urgent, organised labour was committed to exhausting peaceful approach to resolving it.

The State Chairman of AUPCTRE, Mr. Jerry Okosun, expressed regret that workers of the company were owed six months' salaries.

He appealed to the governor to intervene as more than 700 workers on the pay role of the Delta Line were going through difficult times as a result of their unpaid salaries.