The last may not have been heard about the alleged excesses of Terrence Okafor, Head of the Data Management Center that overseas the payment of salaries of civil servants in Imo State, as some Directives in charge of various departments in the Ministry of Finance have raised alarm over his activities which have made them idle and redundant.
A source in the Ministry who does not want his name mentioned said, a situation where Terrence, who hails from Orsu Local Government Area, has assumed the duties of the Accountant General of the state and makes things difficult for civil servants who often cluster in the Ministry seeking how to reconcile issues and solve their salary related problems.
“The disturbing aspect of the ugly scenario is that not even the Head of Service has influence over Terrence who has assumed a larger than life image because of his closeness to the Governor, whose name he drops often to massage his ego. Besides, he is not a civil servant and nobody knows how he came about the position and the arrangement he has with who appointed him. All we know is that he is in charge of the payment of salaries. Aside being arrogant and full of himself, he also lacks human feeling”, the source said.
It would be recalled that a thorough bred career civil servant and retired Permanent Secretary, Chief Festus Agba had earlier faulted the idea of handing over the payment of the salaries of civil servants in the state and attendant issues to an outsider who is neither a civil servant nor conversant with civil service procedure and guidelines, describing it as an aberration.
“It is an aberration that will make civil servants in the state suffer physical, psychological and emotional trauma because the person in question did not rise through the ranks of the civil service and does not have anything at stake”.
Agba, whose comment was in reaction to several complaints by civil servants about the non payment of their salaries, arbitrary and inexplicable deductions among other discrepancies called on the Governor to beam his searchlight on the activities of Terrence and the Data Management Center under his watch to negate speculations making the round in some quarters that Terrence who has been described as a conduit pipe through which millions of naira that are wrongfully deducted from the salaries of Imo people is an agent of some top government functionaries who benefit from his ignoble actions.
