As fallout of complying with the mandate issued the Minister of Transport, Mr. Samuel Wlue, to rescind the appointment of Mr. Oliver Dillon, there are reports of fear within the ranks of servants that they could also be affected by the scheme against non-partisans of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
The fears have been expressed in the wake of a press interaction with CDC Chairman Mulbah Morlue held at its party’s headquarter where Mr. Morlu said it does not make sense for true CDCians who fought so hard for the change to come to sit without jobs while opposition figures who stood against the ruling establishment during their struggle to state power to be enjoying the fruits of their sweat.
“I sent lists of our committed partisans to ministries and agencies for employment and our lists were treated like trash. They said there were no vacancies and we did not complain because we believe they are there for the interest of the President,” Mr. Morlu, in his usual tone of militancy said, adding, “But where there is vacancy, you can’t deny the qualified members of the CDC the opportunity to work and to support their families for non-CDCians”, Mr. Morlu exclaimed.
The CDC Chairman vowed to, henceforth, insist that the party will not condone forsaking their members who were there in opposition throughout and allow others to benefit from their sweat, making specific reference to the appointment of Mr. Oliver Dillon, a brother of the tough talking Montserrado County Senator of Abraham Darius Dillon.
Oliver Dillon was appointed to the office of Director of Port and Border Entry at at the Ministry of Transport. The Senior CDCCian sent out a mandate to the Minister to revoke the said the appointment, and true to what he meant, Mr. Dillon’s appointment was revoked within 72 hours.
Since then speculations, rumors and murmuring have abound that a series of lists have been compiled and sent out to various Ministries and agencies containing the names of non-CDCians to be replaced with qualified partisans of the ruling CDC.
A middle level director in one of the government agencies said his boss told him he has to change the way he discusses issues against the government because he (boss) cannot continue to protect him at the detriment of his job.
“Our director came in this morning and told me I should stop speaking openly against the government otherwise, he can’t guarantee me remaining on my post”, the worried man said.
Our reporter who went further to do some detailed investigation into the news of fears amongst civil servants got feedback that the rumored lists of perceived non-CDCians have been a work in progress for a very long time, but they crafters of the lists were seeking an avenue to launch the cleaning up exercise of those who the ruling establishment was not comfortable with.
A source close to the Human Resource Director at a particular ministry said there was a plot to use the COVID-19 pandemic issue to purge some people out of the government with the pretense of declaring them as non-essential workers.
Another school of thought has it that the exercise to get non-CDCians out of their various places of assignment was actually planned to have taken place before the 2020 senatorial race, but fear of backlash it may generate amongst electorates at the polls made those behind it to shelve it.
“Yes, they really wanted to go about with the exercise so as to get people out and replace them with CDCians, but knowing the people will go against them at such critical time of the 2020 midterm senatorial election intimidated them to have dropped their plans”, said Clay Tarpeh, a civil servant who boldly told our reporter that he is a bonafide member of the Unity Party and fears nothing.
However, there has not been any independent confirmation from either the CDC whether the said listings actually exist, but from the outbursts of Mr. Morlu in recent time to fight back the non-CDCians who are within the government sends out a clear message that the story of the listings may appear true.
The general picture, our investigation has revealed, shows that since the action taken against Mr. Dillon by Minister Wlue, there has been change in the atmosphere in the work places at government institutions for fear of the unknown.
The usual group discussions debating contemporary political issues that are often trending in the country have significantly reduced. People prefer to just sit behind their various desks or stand around their duty posts, doing their daily works and if there was time, take on to the phones to read from social media posts and chat with friends and family.