Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The organised labour in Kogi State on Wednesday told Governor Yahaya Bello to pay the outstanding salaries due to the workers in the state or forget his second- term bid.
Governor Bello is believed to owing workers between 8- 8 months salary arrears with local government workers, primary school teachers and pensioners as the worst affected as they are being paid ‘miserable percentages’ of their salaries.
The state Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Onuh Edoka, while addressing workers at the Confluence Stadium on the occasion of the Workers’ Day celebration, said the state workers would decide who becomes the next governor on November 2, 2019.
According to him, any government that refuses to pay salaries and entitlements should not expect the workers to support it win re-election.
The organised labour lamented that workers in the state had endured hardship for long and were running out of patience, noting that they would have no option than to trope out soon to the street to protest the non-payment of their salaries if the Yahaya Bello administration continues to be indifferent to their plight.
The organised labour, however, warned Governor Bello not to brand workers as tools in the hand of the opposition if he refused to heed to their cry insisting “we shall soon hit the street in protest.”
While blaming government’s insincerity to its commitment towards ameliorating the workers’ plights, labour challenged the accountant-general of the state to publish the payments made so far to workers for the public to actually know the exact amount of money government was owing them.
They urged the government to stop it’s propaganda, blackmail and denial that it does not owe workers any money, insisting that labour has its own data intact.
They also called on government to de-proscribe union activities in tertiary institutions in the state and reinstate sacked ASUU members in Kogi State University, Ayingba.