Don’t Blackmail Me Over Non-Payment Of Salaries, Yahaya Bello Warn Kogi Workers

The Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has sent sound of warning to Civil Servants who blackmail the government with claims of long months of unpaid salaries in order to solicit money from gullible people, or evade their own contractual or domestic obligations.

Bello, who gave the warning yesterday during his New Year broadcast, warned that civil servants should not allow themselves to be used by dishonest and discredited politicians to gain political capital under guise of fighting for Kogi State Civil Servants.

He added that welfare of workers was one of his top priority, stressing that his administration last December, succeeded in paying almost all the salaries arrears owed all categories of workers in the state and that the few ones that are yet to be paid were those having issues with the concluded staff screening exercise.

He expressed surprise that in spite of all his administration is doing to ameliorate the sufferings of workers, some “discredited politicians ” are still using some unscrupulous workers to blackmail his administration that he was owing backlog of salaries.

He warned that any worker caught conniving with detractors to blackmail his administration would be dealth with.
“This information on payment of salaries in relation to the screening exercise is important to dispel the persistent use of alleged non-payment by dishonest and discredited politicians to gain political capital under the guise of fighting for Kogi State civil servants.

“It is also important to sound a warning to those civil servants who defame government with claims of long months of unpaid salaries in order to solicit money from gullible people, or evade their own contractual or domestic obligations.
“As the governor of Kogi State, I do not know of any circumstance under which any civil servant, whether at state or local government level, can be owed even three months salaries after several months of being cleared, let alone six, 10 or more months as some continue to claim.

“Our investigations show that those making these claims were caught in one offence or the other by the screening exercise and were dismissed or suspended from service without pay. In other cases, they were sanctioned for offences, granted pardon subject to regularisation.

“In all of these cases, due process is applicable. While we are making efforts to avoid collecting our full pound of flesh from those who robbed our state in the past through the civil service, we will no longer hesitate to make an example of those we catch compounding their criminal conduct with duplicity in this manner. Government will do its best to pay salaries as and at when due in 2018,” he stated.

The governor said from this month, workers’ attendance to work would be strictly monitored through the use of electronic device otherwise known as ‘clock-in, clock-out’ which he said would finally determine the take-home pay of each worker with a view to fishing out indolent ones. While mentioning some of his achievements in the last two years, he said his administration embarked on many projects which direct bearing on the common man on the street.

He said his agriculture policy has brought succour to indigenes n the state as the mass production of rice through the omi dam has forced prices of food items to be reduced as government now sells rice at subsidised rate to indigenes.
Bello also expressed hope that this year would be far better than that of last year as his administration has mapped out areas to transform the state and create employment opportunities for the teeming youths and urged the indigenes to remain law-abiding.