The leading opposition party in Rivers State, the Action Congress has criticized the Rivers State government for giving an allegedly unpopular law a retroactive effect. In an email message to Ogoninews, the publicity Secretary of the party picked holles in the new law saying the action is inhuman.
The Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Jerry Needam, in the statement criticized Gov Amaechi for directing that deductions of the Social Services Levy be implemented from the August Salaries of all employees of the State workforce with effect from September 2010.
Condemning the official directive as inhuman, unjust and insensitive, the ACN Spokesman, Jerry Needam said though a bad law, what any rational government is expected to do under this circumstance is to begin deductions from the date of passage of the law.
But in this case, he regretted, the Amaechi administration insists to start collecting the said levy from the date the law had not even been conceived, stressing that it was only last year (2011) that the Social Services Levy was passed into law amid public outcry.
To further show his brazen disregard for public feelings, Jerry Needam noted that the civil servants in the State were yet to be paid their arrears of the new minimum wage by Gov Chibuike Amaechi till date which ought to have been harmonized and paid before any deductions of any kind are made on their monthly take-home.
He also faulted the lop sum of 8 months deductions approved for August, September and October salaries and three months for November 2012 respectively in order to recover the 23 months arrears as too much and unfair.
Arguing that if a law is desired to be respected, it must first be made respectable, the ACN said the Amaechi administration should first convince the overtaxed Rivers people of judicious use of their hard earned resources through provision of good roads, water, constant light and security of lives and property, all of which are lacking in the State.
The ACN therefore called on Amaechi to put on hold the implementation of the Social Services Levy until all the Workers Salaries and Allowances are sorted out and cleared, and moreso, should cancel in its entirety the idea of backdating the collection of the levy to September 2010.
Jerry Needam
Publicity Secretary
ACN, Rivers State
Source: OgoniNews
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