By Mary Obi
Over 200 workers of the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AIRS) have appealed to Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo to reconsider their dismissal and either reinstate them or redeploy them to other ministries and departments within the state civil service.
The affected workers also threatened to stage a peaceful protest on March 17, 2026, to register their displeasure over what they described as their “unjust dismissal” by the state government.
According to them, the planned protest will take place at Aroma Junction, near Ekwueme Square in Awka, the venue where Governor Soludo is expected to be sworn in for a second term in office.
The workers faulted their retrenchment following a strategic tax collection examination organised by the state government in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), arguing that the exercise and subsequent sack did not align with provisions of the new tax law granting operational autonomy to revenue agencies across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Recall that the management of AIRS, in an internal memo dated February 18, 2026, directed the retrenchment of Community Revenue Officers and other affected staff who failed to attain the required pass mark in the examination.
The memo, issued by the Administration Department and signed by Nwalusi Ifeanyi, Admin/HR for the Chairman/Chief Executive, instructed the affected workers to hand over all official materials in their possession.
Part of the memo read:
“As part of AIRS’s ongoing restructuring and based on the PwC-administered CBT results, I am directed to convey approval for the retrenchment of Community Revenue Officers on the attached list, having not met the required pass mark.
Action required: Hand over all AIRS tools, ID cards and materials in your possession to the Administration/HR Department.
Deadline: Complete handover on or before Tuesday, February 19, 2026, and the layoff takes immediate effect.
Compliance: Failure to comply will attract sanctions, including possible legal action.”
Reacting to the development, some of the affected workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, appealed to Governor Soludo to intervene urgently to avert what they described as looming hardship for their families.
They argued that under the provisions of the new tax law, PwC had no authority to interfere in the internal administrative affairs of the state revenue service.
“As far as we are concerned, the retrenchment exercise amounts to a misuse of governance,” one of the workers said.
“What PwC carried out in the name of a tax collection examination amounts to professional misconduct. If the retrenchment order stands, it means the efforts we have put into the service over the past seven years have been in vain.”
The workers further noted that for many of them, it was their first time participating in such an examination, insisting that a single test should not be used as the sole basis for determining their competence in tax administration.
“Sacking us is not the best option. What we need is training and retraining. We are appealing to our governor to allow us return to our various departments so we can continue to learn and improve,” another affected staff member said.
They explained that the planned peaceful protest was intended to draw the governor’s attention to their plight as citizens of Anambra State.
The workers also appealed to the management of AIRS to reconsider and withdraw the retrenchment memo in the interest of sustaining the existing working relationship within the state revenue system.