From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi state has lambasted Governor Yahaya Bello’s purported reason for unable to pay workers for upwards of 24 months, describing the excuse as a laughable one.
The governor had in a publication attributed the development to the servicing of the debt he inherited from previous PDP administration.
In a statement issued by the PDP Director Research and Documentation, Mr. Achadu Dickson, in Lokoja on Monday, he condemned the inability of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of Governor Bello to pay workers and pensioners as well as carry out the needed development in the state since assumption of office, describing the government as a “sinking ship that is looking for every excuse to hide its shame and failures.”
The PDP said that the Capt Idris Wada administration handed over a state that was financially buoyant, with a debt profile of only N800million, to the present administration, lamented that in just two years of the APC administration, the state is now indebted to the tune of N45billion.
Dickson said: “While it is on record that Kogi State under Capt Wada was the least indebted state in Nigeria, little wonder under the APC- led Federal Government it was to source N50billion as bailout, which the Bello administration got but wasted N20billion without paying the workers what it was meant for.”
He said that it remained proud that under its administration in the state, all Kogi workers got paid as at when due.
The party lamented a situation where after sacking about 15,000 workers, Governor Bello is still not able to pay salaries.
While noting that it is on record that the present administration squandered a N10billion loan it accessed
The PDP therefore called on the APC administration to either apologise for its failure having raped the state dry.
The party said that it is happy that Bello’s administration can point to about 50 water projects, hospitals, schools, Kogi House, Kogi Hotels, the Confluence Park, and the completed Diagnostic Health Centre it is repainting as some of the numerous projects it inherited.
The PDP challenged the APC administration to list the projects it had initiated and completed in spite of the several billions of naira it had received, aside from a tale of corrupt enrichment by a few persons in the administration which can be verified from personal properties in and around the state as well as in Abuja.
“Unfortunately, after Governor Bello’s sack and with an average of N4.5billion monthly, outside several interventions as bailouts and loans, the administration is owing workers for 24 months,” he said.
