From Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello has warned civil servants not to allow themselves to be used by political detractors to blackmail him over non-payment of salaries, saying welfare of workers was one of the top priorities of his administration.
The governor in a new year state broadcast said his administration, last December paid almost all the salaries arrears owed all categories of workers and stressed that the few ones yet to be paid were those having issues with the concluded staff screening exercise.
He expressed surprise that in spite of all his administration efforts to ameliorate the sufferings of workers, some “discredited politicians” were still using some unscrupulous workers to blackmail his administration that he was owing backlog of salaries.
He warned that any worker caught conniving with detractors to blackmail his administration would be dealt with.
The governor said as from this January, workers’ attendance at work would be strictly monitored through the use of electronic device otherwise known as clock-in, clock-out, which he said will finally determine the take-home pay of each worker with a view to fishing out indolent ones.
While listing some of his achievements in the past two years, he said his administration embarked on many projects that have direct bearing on the common man.
He said his agriculture policy had brought succour to citizens in the state as the mass production of rice through the Omi Dam forced prices of food items down, as government now sells rice at subsidised rate to the citizens.
Governor Bello expressed hope that this year will be far better than last year as his administration had mapped out areas to transform the state and create employment opportunities for the teeming youths and urged the citizens to remain law abiding.