From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
The Chairman of the Kogi State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC), Comrade Onuh Edoka has appealed to Governor Yahaya Bello to stop feeding the world with wrong information that government has cleared salary arrears of Kogi workers and that of pensioners through the Media.
The Chairman described the purported statement by the governor recently on television that he has cleared both salaries and pensions of workers and pensioners up to date as ungodly and pathetic saying that this magnitude of lying is least expected from him as a father of all in the state.
The chairman made the appeal during a meeting between the governor and the organized labour held at the Government House, Lokoja yesterday at the instance of the state government to resolve some grew areas bordering on workers welfare.
Edoka during the meeting condemned the claim of Governor Bello that he was not owing workers salaries except the backlog three months salaries and pensions arrears inherited from the immediate past administration of captain Idris Wada.
He said he could not believe his ears and eyes when he saw the governor live on television denying that he is not owing Kogi workers a dime.
” I thought what some of his aides were saying was a joke. Not until the governor confirmed his aides statements at the Northern governors meeting held in Kaduna recently that he is up to date in salary payment.
” Let me put the records straight. The former governor Captain Idris Ichalla Wada spent 48 months in office and he paid 45 months salaries leaving allocation of December 2015 and January 2016 for the Bello administration to access.
” Nothing is far from the truth than this. The truth is that Bello is hugely indebted to Kogi workers and he should find a means to defray it rather than lying to the public,” he advised.
He advised the governor to set up committee to go round some establishments to find out the true situation of poverty across the state hinting that pupils and students could no longer go to schools, patients cannot access drugs even as petty businesses have closed due to lack of patronage.
Bello who was stunned by the confidence of the labour chairman to tell him the truth to his face admitted to work out modalities to resolve the impasse.
He told the organised labour that his government has done much with the lean resources to develop the state adding that in less than three years he build Kogi Board of Internal Revenue service office complex, complete Ankpa township roads.
Unfazed, he called on the leadership of the organised labour to support his administration for more dividends of democracy to reach all the citizenry in the state.
