The Government of Kogi State has said it has paid salaries for 38 months since it came into office in January 2016.
The Director General of Media and Publicity to the Governor, Hon. Kingsley Fanwo, stated this in Takete Ide Amuro in Mopamuro Local Government while briefing newsmen after an All Progressives Congress, APC, stakeholders’ meeting in the ward.
“One of the questions our party members asked during the meeting was about the claim by labour that we are owing workers 38 months salaries.
“As far as government is concerned, we have paid 38 months salaries starting from September 2015. We have been in office for just 39 months. But we are still owing four months salaries because we started paying from the period we are yet to assume power.
“We are not in any power play with labour. We will continue to appreciate their understanding and we pledge to clear all arrears as soon as possible.”
Fanwo said the government has struggled to bridge the gap inherited because of the dwindling revenue and contending needs of the people of Kogi State.
“We know how pivotal salaries are to microeconomics and we also know we owe other sectors of the public a good number of social amenities. Government will continue to manage the contending interests to serve a good number of the population,” he said.
On the rumoured decamping of Governor Yahaya Bello to Accord Party, Fanwo said promoters of the rumour failed to “rehearse their falsehood properly” as “such rumours will fail a major logic lab test”.
He added, “It is laughable to insinuate that a Governor that just led our party to landslide and historic victory in the 2019 general elections is about to abandon his bungalow to rent a hut.
“If this is the kind of propaganda opposition wants to fly with, then they are not ready for the November 2nd electoral battle in the state.
“Governor Yahaya Bello is the landlord of Kogi APC. Anyone coming is a tenant. Where were those opponents when he built the party into what dwarfed others in the 2019 elections?
“The people spreading those rumours are political comedians with lazy minds. They are conceding defeats with such cheap jokes.”
Fanwo challenged Sen. Dino Melaye to go ahead and publish the expenditures of government between 2016 to 2019, saying, “a good student of accounting and common sense will do good by publishing both income and expenditure.”
He said the Kogi people have seen the Rice Mill the Governor is building and the roads under construction, stressing that any form of “illogical incitement will be counterproductive.”
“You can see the executives with me here. These are the people who will determine who flies our party ticket in November. The person they know is GYB and they will go all out to give him a second term,” he said.
