PDP carpets Bello over non-payment of salary

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kogi state, on Monday said the excuse offered by the state government for its non-payment of salary as laughable and lie. The party said the state government was only attempting to justify its failure by blaming the development on servicing inherited debt from the previous administration.

The party in a statement by its director research and documentation, Achadu Dickson, Lokoja, said the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration was a sinking ship that is looking for every excuse to hide its shame and failures.

The PDP said the Capt Idris Wada administration handed over a state that was financially buoyant, with a debt profile of the only N800million, to the present administration, lamenting that in two years of the APC administration the state had incurred the debt of N45billion.

It said, “It is on record that Kogi state under Capt Wada was the least indebted state in Nigeria, little wonder under the APC led federal government administration it was to source N50billion as the bailout, which the Bello administration got but wasted N20billion without paying the workers it was meant for”.

The PDP said it remained proud that under its administration in the state all Kogi state workers got paid as at when due, regretting the situation where after sacking about 15000 workers in the state, Gov. Bello is still not able to pay salaries.

The party, while noting that the present administration squandered an N10billion loan it accessed even without the approval of the state assembly on account of the state workers, said “Governor Yahaya Bello was looking for excuses over his inability to pay salaries of workers who on daily basis die by committing suicide, due to hunger, sicknesses, which could have been avoided if they had been paid.

The PDP however tasked the APC administration to apologise for its failure having raped the state dry, saying it is happy that Bello’s administration could point to about 50 water projects, hospitals, Schools, Kogi House, Kogi Hotels, the Confluence Park, and the completed Diagnostic Health Center it is repainting as some of the numerous projects it inherited.

The PDP also challenged the APC administration to list projects it had initiated and completed in spite of the several billions of naira it had received aside from a tale of corrupt enrichment by few persons.

Tribune