Ekiti state governor Ayo Fayose
in a state broadcast on Thursday lamented the fact that the state has
been unable to pay its workers salaries, saying that he cannot sell
himself or his family to pay salaries.
The governor who said he had no immediate solution to the problem, decried the dwindling federal allocation to the state.
“Right now, I’m helpless. It is
difficult to sell myself, my family or my property. I can only depend on
what I get from Abuja. I want workers to understand that it is my
priority to make them comfortable.
Even before going on their strike, I
got to know that many of them no longer come to office while many
others were coming late to the office. Why I refused to come hard on
those involved was that I had no moral justification to do so since I
knew we were owing them.
I don’t have powers to prevent them
from going on strike, we shall be waiting till when they come back. But
they must realise that strike is not the best option.
Even in Government House, we don’t
have money to power generators with diesel, whereas, I cannot sell
myself or members of my family to raise funds, things are that
difficult,” Fayose said.
The workers under aegis of the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Joint
Negotiating Council (JNC) embarked on an indefinite strike to protest
the nonpayment of the outstanding five months’ salaries of public
workers in the state.
According to PUNCH,
the workers are demanding the release of the staff audit and
verification conducted in April, 2015, disclosure of the state monthly
internally generated revenue, payment of arrears of five months’
salaries, pension and gratuities, payment of the September 2014 salary
to primary school teachers and payment of the 2014 and 2015 leave
bonuses.
They are also agitating for
the implementation of promotion for 2013, 2014 and 2015, approval of
inter-cadre transfer, remission of 10 percent IGR to the local
government councils and the stoppage of the Joint Allocation Committee’s
account, resuscitation of Local Government Staff Pension Fund and
release of running grants.
