Prof. Ayade who addressed the workers yesterday at the U. J. Esuene Stadium however said the workers will be reabsorbed after the ongoing verification exercise.
He clarified that his decision to re-absorb the embattled workers was on compassionate ground and not because the state is buoyant enough to accommodate them.
He said:
"Yesterday I addressed some workers who were delisted from the payroll at the U.J. Esuene Stadium, Calabar.
"Their employment was without my knowledge, as the civil service commission did the employment without recourse to me.
"Immediately I took office in 2015, I lifted the embargo on employment into the Cross River civil service and employed 2,500 teachers instantly.
"When I came in, staff in the Cross River State Water Board had not been paid for a very long time, because they were ad-hoc staff. I decided to convert them to permanent staff, made them civil servants, payrolled them and paid their backlog.
Continuing, the governor said:
"As a State Governor, you suddenly discovered an additional 2,500 staff on your payroll that you did not authorize, that you did not know about, nobody consulted you, what will you do?
" If I was vindictive, I would have since sacked officials who smuggled the names into the payroll.
"I asked the delisted workers to submit themselves to verification for regularization. I have decided to get them reabsorbed into the service out of compassion. I am doing so on compassionate ground and not because the state is buoyant enough to accommodate them.
"I earn an income that is less than the salary of this state. We are reabsorbing them because we are humans, we still have conscience."
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