BY STEPHEN OLUFEMI ONI/ILORIN

Kwara State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the state government of diversion of over N3 billion bail-out fund it received from the federal government to pay the outstanding salaries and pensions of its workforce and pensioners respectively.

The party’s Publicity Secretary in the state, Rex Olawoye, in a statement, lamented that up till the moment the fund which the state government received on 8 July, 2015 is yet to be disbursed for that purpose, saying some of the workers are being owed about five months.

Alarmed at the alleged curious conduct of the state government, Olawoye described the alleged diversion as “criminal, insensitive and a total negation of the spirit behind the fund’s release.” He said: “Even more curious is the fact that the Kwara State Government has kept mute about the exact amount it got from the Consolidated Revenue Account, while virtually all states have publicly declared how much they got in bail-out from the federal government”

He therefore urged national leadership of the various Labour Unions to prevail on the state government to immediately commence the payment of the arrears of the salaries and pensions to ameliorate the suffering of workers and pensioners in the state.

Reacting on behalf of the state government, the Senior Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, dismissed as untruthful, claims by the opposition PDP that the state government diverted the N2.1 billion it received recently as its share of the NLNG dividend. He said: “The state government had neither received a bail out from the federal government nor the N3 billion claimed by the opposition.”