Alhaji Mohammed Abioye, the Chairman of ex-workers said they took the decision to cast their vote for the APC in order to put a stop to the downward socio-economic development of Kwara due to poor governance.

Abioye said the group made up of retired civil servants in the 16 local government areas of Kwara is collaborating with other well meaning Kwarans to liberate the state from the bad leadership since 2003.

We are concerned because this ugly trend has come about because the civil service which is supposed to be the engine room of government has been largely bastardised, particularly since 2003 to date.

It is sad to note that the Kwara state civil service which hitherto used to be a reference point for excellent service delivery has now become a reference point for the opposite.

The reason for this ugly trend is traceable obviously to poor service condition, lack of respect and regards for the service and its personnel both serving and retired, disregard for the inputs of service in major policy formulation and implementation.

Others are disregards for extant rules and regulations guiding appointments, promotions, postings, management of public funds. Succinctly put, the past eight years remain the worse for both serving and retired civil servants at both state and local government levels.

We cannot, at this juncture, but specially mention the plights of our brothers and sisters in the Local Government system who are being owed backlog of arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities, he said.

Abioye vowed that they will work with other progressive to terminate the current political dynasty which has made our state the headquarters if abject poverty in Nigeria.

He therefore called on the APC, that if it governorship candidate, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq wins the elections, he should right all the wrongs by the PDP.

The information and culture minister in his speech recalled that when the current Senate President Bukola Saraki became Kwara governor in 2003, he promised that no civil servant in the state would earn less than N50,000 a month.

Lai said rather than fulfilling his promise, the civil servants in Kwara are among the least paid in the federation and they also do not receive even the little that is due to them on time.

The civil servants who are poorly paid or being owed are barely eking out a living.

Their standard of living has plummeted beyond imagination under the present dispensation. Added to this, the system, as it is presently constituted, offers no hope, he said.

The minister berated Sarakis recent statement that he would pay teachers from his own pocket.

Where in the world are public workers paid by individuals? How sustainable is this? What could be the motivation behind this? These are issues that you must critically interrogate as we head to the polls on Saturday.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no hope for any Kwaran under this rapacious and enslaving system.

The only hope lies in voting out those who have pauperised all of us, and opening the vista to a new dawn in our state.

This is not just about us; it is about the future of our children. The choice we make on Saturday and on March 2nd will go a long way in determining our well being in the years ahead.

The minister urged the ex-workers to vote wisely by rejecting those who had enslaved the state for so long.

He said the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is workers friendly having approved the upward review of national minimum wage of N30,000 for federal workers inspite of opposition from the states.

He said the government had also approved and paid pensions and other benefits of the former workers of the defunct Nigeria Airways after 14 years of neglect.

He said the federal government had also paid the pensions and benefits of the retired Biafra Police, ex-workers of Aladja Steel rolling, in Delta and NITEL.

We have done all these at the federal level, we will surely do it for you, but you have to fulfil your own part by voting for the APC, he said.

Abduleazaq, Kwara APC governorship candidate, who was represented by Chief Kunle Suleiman, assured that he would address the plight of all civil servants and the retired ones, if given the mandate.