Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State: Workers ask him to keep his Christmas clothes and pay workers’ salaries

Civil Servants in Kogi have kicked the move by the state government to provide Christmas clothes for 20,000 children by Governor Yahaya Bello, a gesture which, according to them, was as a ploy to jettison payment of  their  salaries.

The workers spoke against the backdrop of disappointment over inability of the State government to fully defray the backlog of salaries being owed them by the State ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Kogi Commissioner for Finance, Asiwaju Asiru Idris  had promised that workers will receive 60% of their four months salary ahead of Christmas and New Year

But workers who spoke to journalists in Lokoja on Friday said the alerts  they received  from their respective banks were only for half salary for the month of September, leaving out the months of August, October, November and December.

Speaking under the umbrella of Enlightened Workers’ Forum, EWF, the workers asked Governor Bello to pay their salaries rather than distributing free Christmas gifts to Children.

The EWF statement which was made available to journalists in Lokoja, on Friday reads in part:  “We are still at a loss why the governor still owes core civil servants 20 months arrears, workers in institutions on subventions eleven months and local government workers and primary school teachers nine months.

“Rather than making sincere and concrete efforts to pay our salaries, the governor is busy distributing Christmas clothes for 20,000 children.

“If he pays their parents regularly, it will be easy for them to buy clothes for their children. It is not the business of government to be buying Christmas clothes for children and this has turned Kogi State to a laughing stock.

“Offering to buy Christmas clothes for children when salaries are not paid is an attempt to play politics with the poverty of the people and turn the innocent kids to pawns on the political chess board.

“We reject this Christmas Clothes for Children project in its entirety; all we need are our salaries and allowances. Let the governor look for means to pay them so that we can have relief.

“A labourer deserves his wages and the sweat of his labour must not dry on his forehead. We have worked for this money, it is our right and not privilege, the governor must pay our salaries.

“We are also using this medium to call on the Federal Government to investigate how bailout funds, Paris Club refunds, Budget Support Funds sent to Kogi State were spent.

“We believe if these monies are deployed to payment of workers, all these arrears would have been offset by now.”