Ekiti workers kick against plan by labour to honour Ekiti Governor

chika ebuzor

May 1, 2017 7:08 AM

The aggrieved workers say they have suffered a lot due to the non-payment of their salaries.

Governor Ayo Fayose

Ekiti state workers have opposed plans by labour union leaders to honour Governor Ayo Fayose.

The aggrieved workers under the aegis of Enlightened Workers Forum (EWF), say they have suffered a lot due to the non-payment of their salaries.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) are planning to honour Fayose with the Comrade Governor Award.

The workers also allege that the unions met with the Governor, who promised to donate N10m to their cause.

The EWF co-ordinator, Mike Bamidele, in a statement made available to Daily Post, said "By the way, why ths award and why the Labour? Is it to appreciate him (Fayose) for punishing us unduly?

“Right now, the workers are being owed six months arrears of salary, local government workers eight months and pensioners seven months.

“Are we to thank him for making us celebrate the last Xmas without salary for the first time in the history of the state or for the Xmas bonus of only five per cent of basic while his predecessor paid 30 percent of same?

“Though we had listened to the governor’s cooked up stories on how his predecessor threw the state into imaginary debt but in the real sense of it, Ekiti had no excuse at all to owe salary if the man in charge had been honest and if the “cash and carry’ Labour had been alive to its responsibility.”

ALSO READ:IPOB honours Ekiti Governor with honorary citizenship

Meanwhile, the Ekiti NLC Chairman Ade Adesanmi debunked EWF’s allegations saying "The Comrade Governor to be given to Fayose 'is not an award but a decoration' to appreciate what he has done for workers.

“It is not an award but a decoration that we supposed to have done last year but we suspended it when Ekiti lost six doctors in an auto accident in April last year.

“I want to say that this group of people cannot be hiding under a name and be spreading falsehood; we don’t know them, we don’t know their office and we don’t know their phone number.

“If they are really concerned about workers’ welfare, let us know them so that we can work together but it is not good for them to be hiding somewhere and be throwing stones. If there are things they feel we are not doing right let them come into the open and tell us.”

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have awarded an honorary title to Governor Ayo Fayose for supporting their leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

chika ebuzor