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I Will Not Pay Workers On Strike, Kogi Gov Vows; Insists They Are Political Civil Servants

Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello
Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello

Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has vowed not to pay workers in the state that are currently on strike, describing them as political civil servants.
The governor insisted that he had cleared the backlog of salary arrears which he inherited from the previous governments ran by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Governor Yahaya Bello, who answered reporters’ questions today, Monday, shortly after a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, said: “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 (salaries) 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.
“Those workers that are on Strike are political civil servants. The real civil servants are coming to work.”
The governor said that the state is very stable now in terms of political activities, adding that it is just a few “Diaspora politicians that are making noise in the media and I think you can’t stop them from making noise when they want to, but the reality on ground is that Kogi State is very very stable.”
He appealed to those he described as “the good people of Kogi state” to continue to be patient with his 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.”
Alhaji Yahaya Bello said that all the noise about the fact that Kogi state is not paying salaries will be brough to the public domain.
On the recent attack of an editor by his security detail, the governor said: “you can never rule out overzealousness of some security agencies and any time they try to take laws into their hands, we will deal with it appropriately.
“I am very sure that those that tried to assault a journalist have been dealt with according to the law.”[myad]