The attention of Kogi State Government has been drawn to a
statement contained in the Bulletin 8 of the state branch of NLC/TUC, directing
Civil Servants to commence strike action with effect from Monday, 27th June
2016.
In a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information,
Culture and Tourism, Hon. Mohammed Awwal Imam, the development is viewed as
sabotage, considering the fact that payment of arrears of salaries commenced
two weeks ago. 48 MDAs out of the total 55 MDAs have been paid, 7 MDAs
are yet to be paid because the correct grade levels of the workers are being
verified. Salary variations were received from many MDAs for the month of
February to April 2016. 14 Local Government Areas with correct information has
been paid, while work is in advance stage for the payment of both Local
Government Areas and State Pensioners.
The patience Kogi State workers have endured, should not be
thrown away by accepting the strike action. Please note that the action will
truncate the ongoing efforts of payment of remaining 7 MDAs, LGAs, and
Pensioners.
Government has the best interest of the State Civil Servants
and the entire Kogi State at heart. The Screening Exercise, which is the
main cause delay in the payments of salaries, is being carried out in
order to eliminate the deep rot we have within the civil service. Those behind
the proposed strike action may be those benefitting from the series of illegal
salary payment in the past that has crippled the State. I assure you that
Government is working round the clock to ensure that the remaining civil
servant are paid within the coming days.
I wish to state categorically that His Excellency, Alhaji
Yahaya Bello, the Executive Governor of Kogi State, remains committed to the
general wellbeing of all Kogi State indigenes, which include the Civil
Servants, and ever prepared to weed out ghost workers from the State, with a
view to allow workers get paid as at when due.
For the love and passion that we have for the younger ones
in school particularly in Kogi State University, Government wishes to use this
medium to plead with the Academic Staff Union of the university to return to
their classrooms. The ASUU strike affects not just the psyche of the student,
but also causes further stress to the parents and ultimately tarnishes the
reputation of our great State. ASUU is reminded that they were the first to be
paid even when Government could assess only 40% of the bailout funds requested.
We should all remain focused on the prize and remind
ourselves that the screening exercise will create a lot of savings for the
state. The money saved will be used in the prompt and complete payments of the
genuine civil servants and also assist in the critical developmental areas
identified by His Excellency.
These include the creation of world class public model
schools, health institutions, development of small and medium enterprises and
also rapid rural infrastructural development.
Civil servants should think deep and join forces with the
Government in order to develop our dear State. His Excellency implores you all
to disregard falsehoods from persons trying to hinder the development of the
State for their personal and other reasons.
To this end, I hereby enjoined all genuine Civil Servants in
the State to go about their normal work schedule and let us all build a new
Kogi State in the NEW DIRECTION of the Administration of Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
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