From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
Gov Yahaya Bello
The Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Matthew Kolawole has attributed the inability of the ruling APC government in Kogi to restore regular payment of workers salaries to the problem of servicing of previous loans and debts inherited from past administration.
Kolawole disclosed this at a media parley with members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of Kogi Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Lokoja.
According to him, the state inherited huge debts from loans obtained by previous administrations.
He explained that the APC government was paying about N700 million monthly to service debt inherited from the immediate past governor of the state, Capt. Idris Wada at inception but has presently increased it to N840 Million monthly to cover offset of previous loans and those obtained by the present administration.
The speaker said that while Bello’s administration inherited four months’ salary arrears owed to state government workers, local government workers are owed about 34 months arrears.
He added that while the immediate past administration paid between 25 and 30 per cent of local government workers salaries, the present administration was paying 65 per cent and was currently working to clear all outstanding salaries to state government workers in the next two months.
The speaker held that it was not easy to run a state saying that Governor Yahaya Bello had tried his best and would continue to do his best to uplift the state.
