SAN FRANCISCO, October 16, (THEWILL) – The Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello on Monday described those currently on strike in the state as “political civil servants”, threatening that his administration would implement the ‘no work no pay’ rule to curb the excesses of such workers.
Bello stated this to State House correspondents on Monday after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He clarified that the state was currently owing August and September salaries as against the several months that was being peddled, adding that economic hardship is affecting every other state, not just Kogi.
THEWILL recalls that the organised labour in Kogi state had embarked on an indefinite strike on September 22, at the expiration of a seven-day strike notice to the state government.
The workers accused the state government of failure to honour the agreement reached with them.
While accusing the government of failure to pay salaries and other entitlements, they also said the Bello-led administration was witch-hunting some workers in the state.
The unions had given the state government notice to pay the July 2017 salary and to reverse some of the newly-introduced policies they claimed were not in tandem with the civil service rules.
The workers demanded among other things, “that government should as a matter of urgency, rescind its decision on clocking in and out policy in the public service of the state, which aims at casualising the service on daily pay basis.”
The governor reacted by saying he planned to publish in national dailies all the salaries he had paid to workers to clear the doubts of sections of the people on the issue,.
He said, “Those workers that are on strike are political civil servants, real civil servants are coming to work. We are trying are best to keep up with the payment of salaries. There is no denying the fact that the economy is biting hard everywhere and you will recall that I met four months’ salary backlog, I cleared it and today we are keeping up to date.
“We are owing August and September as we speak. We are up to date in terms of salaries and those that come to work we shall pay them and those that don’t come to work, the no work no pay shall surely apply.
“The only thing is that the good people of Kogi state should continue to be patient with this government. Things are hard generally and we are trying our best and that is why we are transparent in everything that we do. I’m sure you are aware of the periodic publishing of our accounts, very soon we are going to publish all the salaries that we have paid to workers since inception in newspapers for people to see it. All the noise about Kogi not paying salaries will be in public domain.”
The governor, who said he was at the Aso Villa to brief Buhari on happenings in his state, disclosed that the President commended his handling of affairs of the state.
He also disclosed that his administration was adopting ways to be ahead of criminals in the state and keep the state secure.
According to him, “On the scale of 1 to 10 we are 70 per cent, we are doing very well even though the challenges are still there. Security is not what you tackle once and for all, you have to continue to do your best. The criminals, kidnappers, armed robbers, hoodlums will always device various tactics, they may change styles we have to change along with them and be ahead of them at any point in time in order to keep Kogi state secure and Kogi is currently secure.”
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