Some Delta State Youths under the aegis of Delta Youths Assembly (DYA), a socio-political pressure group comprising all the youths in the state, have called on the state Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, to urgently pay workers in the state with the N10 billion received in the second tranche of the Paris Club refund.
In a press statement signed by National Publicity Secretary of DYA, Ezekiel Enejeta, the group lamented the inability of Okowa-led state government to off-set over 15 months salary arrears owed local government employees in the state.
National President of DYA, Comrade Gilor Kelly, said in spite of the N21. 54 billion Delta State received from federal allocations in first quarter of 2017, the state government still owes its workers.
Said he, “Delta State in the recently disbursed Paris Club refund received N10bln, the State also received N14,500,000,000 in 2016 and have so far received a total of 27,606,963,362.46 from the Paris Club refund between 1995 and 2002″, Comrade Gilor said.
“Also in federal allocations, the Okowa-led administration have received the third largest share behind Rivers and Bayelsa States, with all these funds including internally generated revenue, Delta State is still behind most states with visible deficit in infrastructural development”.
The group, therefore, enjoined Governor Okowa to use the Paris Club refund to offset salary arreers, saying that workers in the state have lost patience in the midst of hardship and high cost of goods and services in the country.