THE Ogun State government yesterday released N1.5 billion for the payment of salary deductions and cooperative dues from salaries affecting both state and local government workers.
The workers began an indefinite strike on Monday over three months’ unpaid salaries and six months unremitted deductions.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Mr. Nasir Gboyega
Isiaka berated the government for neglecting the desires of the people, while preferring to pursue “self-aggrandising projects.”
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said in a statement that the release of the funds was in fulfillment of the agreement reached between Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the workers during an interactive session held last month.
He attributed the deductions to the recent downturn in revenue from federal allocations and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
The release of funds, he stated, demonstrates that government has successfully adjusted to the new financial reality and was confident that it would be able to clear the balance of arrears expediently.
Isiaka, in his address to a cross-section of artisans and public workers at an interactive session in Abeokuta yesterday, said: “A labourer deserves his wage and I see no reason why Amosun-led government should be owing salaries and refuse to remit deductions considering a lot of white elephant projects he embarked upon, his uncontrolled appetite for material acquisition and mind-boggling debt profile which is unprecedented in the history of the state.”
