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Uzodimma Approves ₦104,000 Minimum Wage for Imo Civil Servants
Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma has announced a new minimum wage of ₦104,000 for civil service employees in the state.
This decision positions Imo among a select few states that have enacted such an increase in response to national economic conditions and the rising cost of living.
In his announcement, the Governor also introduced a comprehensive set of incentives and reforms aimed at enhancing the welfare of the state’s workforce and pensioners.
READ ALSO: Uzodimma denies plans to handpick 2027 successor
Uzodimma confirmed that the ₦104,000 wage structure will be implemented immediately.
For civil servants already earning consolidated salaries of ₦104,000 or more, the government has approved an additional 10 percent salary increase to ensure fairness and a broad impact from the wage review.
This initiative also includes significant salary increases for other essential sectors, such as healthcare and education.
In the healthcare sector, the new salary structure raises entry-level salaries for doctors to ₦582,000.
The Governor stated that this adjustment not only recognizes the vital role of healthcare professionals but also serves as an incentive to attract and retain qualified personnel in the state.
He also mentioned that the new salary structure addresses the educational sector, with entry-level salaries for lecturers set at ₦222,000.
In addition to the salary increase, the Governor assured Imo workers of the continued implementation of the 13th-month salary and promised that all promotions granted in recent years would now be financially honored.
“This is more than just a wage increase,” Uzodimma remarked. “It is a commitment to restoring dignity to labor and ensuring that our public servants can lead decent, productive lives.”
In an unprecedented move, the Governor also announced ₦16 billion in gratuities for pensioners, which includes free healthcare insurance coverage aimed at alleviating the financial burdens faced by elderly retirees.
Furthermore, the state has commenced the long-overdue payment of gratuities dating back to 2006. According to the administration, over 5,700 retirees—including 2,962 from the local government sector and 2,742 from the state level—will receive their entitlements in phased batches.
The Governor indicated that many have already received payments, with the remaining set to be paid in one or two more installments.
The government’s salary reforms also extend to employees of the Imo State Transport Company (ITC).
In June 2025, ITC staff salaries were increased, with monthly pay rising from a modest ₦9,000–₦41,000 to ₦51,000–₦60,000, depending on grade level and responsibilities. This is viewed as a significant turnaround for a previously neglected sector.
This latest development builds on earlier actions taken by the Uzodimma-led administration. In July 2023, following the removal of fuel subsidies and the resulting economic hardship, the Governor approved a temporary increase in the state’s minimum wage to ₦40,000. This package included free transportation, medical care, and additional social interventions.
Speaking to the Nation, Uchenna Ibe Great, the Imo Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), described the wage review as “commendable” and a “welcome development.”
“It is quite commendable. We applaud the governor for this review. Since nobody told him to do it, he took it upon himself to do it, despite all the problems confronting Imo State. He has taken the time to think about the workforce; it is a good development,” Great stated.
The TUC chairman also expressed gratitude to the Governor for considering the welfare of retirees, particularly the ₦16 billion in gratuities for pensioners.
“The Governor has given pensioners the opportunity to change their next of kin. This development will save people from the numerous court cases experienced in the past,” he added.
Great emphasized that the Governor’s decision was not a result of pressure from the labor force but rather a gesture of goodwill.
He characterized the wage increase as a victory for the entire workforce in the state, asserting that “no worker in Imo will say you (Uzodimma) have not been fair, at least for this.”
At the state Secretariat along Owerri-Port Harcourt Road, jubilant celebrations erupted as workers rejoiced over the governor’s approval of the new minimum wage.
While some workers expressed cautious optimism, indicating they would wait to see the implementation of the new minimum wage, others described the governor’s gesture as unexpected and sudden, welcoming the move as a positive development.
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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