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The Ebonyi State Government has restated that it was not owing its workers salaries. Rather, the state government declared that the state remains the only one where workers are paid mega bonuses or 13th month salaries under this recession.
In a press release made available to Daily Sun, on Wednesday, the state government said Governor Dave Umahi remains workers-friendly and would always take their welfare seriously.
The statement read in part: “The attention of Ebonyi State Government has been drawn to a news story published on page 9 of Daily Sun, of Tuesday, June 27, 2017.
“In paragraph six of the publication credited to the National President of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Ibrahim Khaleel, the Ebonyi State was listed among other states which were allegedly owing their local government staff salaries for “four months”!
“I wish to state without equivocation that the Divine Mandate administration of His Excellency, Governor David Nweze Umahi has never owed workers’ salaries since its inception; does not owe workers’ salaries presently; and will not owe workers’ salaries. As a Christian and a deacon in the vineyard of our Lord Jesus Christ, the labour-friendly governor of Ebonyi State believes that the labourer does not only deserve his wages; rather the labourer equally deserves to be paid his wages promptly too to enable him work-out his personal economic plan in our capitalist economic system. This informed Umahi administration’s wage profile of paying Ebonyi workers not later than the 20th of every month – a tradition that has earned the current administration commendations from Ebonyi workers and from stakeholders in labour relations.
“Ebonyi is not only one of the nine states in Nigeria where workers are not owed salaries, it is the only state in Nigeria where workers are paid mega bonuses or 13th month salaries under this recession! Through his agricultural revolution, Umahi has upgraded farming into a profitable venture. Besides the bonuses earlier mentioned, Ebonyi workers whose earnings have been affected by the recession are encouraged through soft loans, exemption from duties on Thursdays and Fridays and other logistics to acquire more economic power through farming.
“It is regrettable that a highly-placed labour leader like Mr. Khaleel did not care to cross-check his information with readily available facts before giving it out to the general public. The NULGE president, Mr. Ibrahim Khaleel, is hereby urged to retract the wrong information which is calculated to impugn the impeccable labour-friendly image of Governor Umahi’s administration in Ebonyi State”.
