Xclusive: Ondo State Is Broke, Cannot Pay Workers’ Salaries – PDP

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ondo State and the Mimiko-led government were yesterday, engaged in a verbal war over the financial status of the state.

While PDP claimed that the state was broke and could not pay workers salaries, and other obligations to its workers, the state government dismissed the allegation, describing it as a “wicked propaganda and lack of initiative by PDP to remain visible.”

However, Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, in the state, Mrs. Bosede Daramola, maintained that the state did not owe workers salaries. She said March salaries were paid even before the Easter period.

The party’s Director of Publicity, Ayo Fadaka, in a statement in Akure, said the government, in an attempt to shield the fact of its insolvency, had embarked on a subterfuge that it was trying to unmask the existence of ghost workers in its workforce.

According to the statement, “the Mimiko administration has grossly mismanaged the finances of the state to the level that it can no longer fulfil its financial obligations.

“Specifically, primary school teachers are being owed salaries of over two months, while all the workers are currently being owed their March salaries.”

However, Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Olurotimi, challenged PDP to come out publicly with the identities of the workers being owed salaries, saying the allegation was “a deliberate act to misinform the public about the good tidings in the Sunshine State.

“The opposition party is suffering from ignorance in the rudiments of governance.

“They are just blabbing to keep themselves busy and give the people the impression that they still exist. No amount of blackmail will distract the government as intended by the opposition.”