COVID-19 Vaccination: Edo Govt Warns Absentee Civil Servants Against Consequences

As many unvaccinated civil servants in Edo State continued to stay off work due to the “no vaccination certificate, no entry” directive of the state government, the government has cautioned the workers playing the absenteeism game, saying that there were consequences for such.

The Edo State Government, it would be recalled, had on September 15, began the implementation of Governor Obaseki’s directive that only civil servants with evidence that they had taken, at least, the first jab of the COVID-19 would be allowed into government offices.

Due to the uncompromising implementation of the directive, some civil servants, who had not taken the jab, had embarked on frantic efforts to get vaccinated and it was reliably gathered that some had also been surreptitiously purchasing cards as evidence of vaccination with alleged connivance from officials carrying out the vaccination exercise.

Recall that the enforcement of the directive had deprived the civil servants yet to be vaccinated from entering their offices while the state government committee on COVID-19 had also intensified its vaccination efforts in the state.

Worried by the rate of absenteeism among civil servants, since the implementation began, the state government, in an internal memo from the Office of the Head of Service, and endorsed by the Permanent Secretary of the office, Mrs P.E. Aziegbemhin, threatened to sanction any civil servant who failed to report to work on Tuesday.

The memo with Ref No HOS 35/VOL/IV/150, addressed to the Secretary to the State Government, Chief of Staff, Permanent Secretaries, Auditor-General (State and Local Governments), Chairman, (State and Civil and Local Government Service Commission) reads:

“Government has observed with dismay the attitude of many civil/public servants who have absented themselves from duty since Wednesday 15th September 2021 due to reasons best known to them.

“Following the above observation, it is to be noted that the government will no longer tolerate absenteeism from duty on the part of civil/public officers. Officers who fail to report for duty from Tuesday, September 21, 2021, would be sanctioned in accordance with the provisions of the relevant extant rules.

“All permanent secretaries and Head of Agencies are advised to give the widest publicity to the contents of this circular letter please.”