We’re not owing workers, says Ekiti Govt

The Ekiti State Government has denied owing workers April salary.

It said it has paid the salary of workers across the 16 local government areas, but some “elements” in the councils are preventing their workers from collecting their salaries.

Speaking with reporters after the State Executive Council meeting in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mr. Funminiyi Afuye, said some officials of a few of the councils were responsible for the delay.

Afuye said 12 of the 16 councils have paid their workers, but said an official of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employee (NULGE) in Ilejemeje, in a letter, told a bank manager not to credit the accounts of the council’s staff.

He said: “We are bringing it to the notice of the public that in some local governments, Ijero for instance, the people who are supposed to pay the workers were locked out by some of these elements to prevent them from paying the workers. 

“In Ekiti East, the salary documents were seized. In Ilejemeje, the NULGE Chairman issued a letter to the bank to stop the payment of salary.”

The commissioner said those responsible for the delay would be punished. He said the Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development, Chief Dayo Fadipe, has started meeting with the NULGE leadership to prevail on the situation.

Afuye said the government has approved the contract for the installation of 20 transformers in Ado-Ekiti and the Government Technical Colleges in Ikole and Ado at N138,547,639.15.

He said the contract includes the installation of some of the 100 transformers that were earlier procured by the administration.

Afuye said the project would ensure regular power supply and encourage small and medium scale industries.