Stop deceiving workers with verification, APC tells Fayose

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has asked Governor Ayodele Fayose to stop deceiving the state workers over failed promises to pay their salaries.

The party said the endless workers’ verification exercise designed to ‎keep  faith  with the government was a wicked tactic to secure workers’ cooperation.

The state APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, in a statement yesterday accused the governor of deliberate falsehood on the state’s financial status, saying the governor had no excuse to owe workers’ salaries.

“We have heard the governor say that the state was broke and we can’t find merit in that declaration because savings in all the empowerment schemes cancelled by the governor, the number of workers in thousands that were sacked‎ and drastic cuts in the allowances and running grants of workers, including traditional rulers, would have saved the state millions of naira,” he said.

Olatubosun noted that former Governor Kayode Fayemi carried out verification exercise only once through biometric auditing that brought sanity to wage payment system.

He wondered why after Fayose did verification exercise three times within seven months, the governor was still subjecting workers “to unnecessary verification contraption.”

“We in APC pity the workers, including pregnant women, who queue endlessly in the sun waiting to do this ill-conceived verification exercise. The governor assured that 48 hours after the exercise, the cleared workers would receive their pay.

“But two months after some workers completed the exercise, the governor has refused to pay, instead he is keeping workers on queue for hours in the sun for the salary that would not come. As a result, the workers have become confused, dejected and despondent,” the APC spokesman said.

Olatubosun urged the governor to come clean on how he had been spending Ekiti money, saying‎ rhetoric on state’s indebtedness was a callous way to deny the workers their entitlements while the governor was enjoying his personal life.

“Ekiti people have heard how N650million is being deducted from source to pay the governor’s election contractors. For six months, Fayose didn’t pay kobo on the purported Fayemi’s over-bloated ‎debts.

“Savings in millions are made from cuts in workers and Obas’ allowances and running grants, including the savings in millions from thousands that lost their jobs. Social security for 20,000 elders was also cancelled by the governor.