Labour Party Governor Alex Otti Is Failing Workers As Well
The Nigeria Labour Congress has accused the only governor of Labour Party, Alex Otti of failing to perform his core responsibility of paying the workers as and when due.
Amidst agitation for a new living wage, as the organised labour unions call it, attention has shifted to the state governors, who have rejected an unapproved sum of N60,000 as a minimum wage for workers.
The NLC accused Governor Alex Otti of Abia State of it doing enough to clear all the arrears that his predecessor Ikpeazu owed workers of the southeastern state.
Okoro Ogbonnaya, the NLC chairman in Abia State said that despite the fact that the government is receiving more allocation from the federal reserve, Otti, who ought to be identified with the workers, has refused to clear the seven-month backlog he inherited from the last administration.
He said, “It was because of the huge backlog of salaries being owed by the former administration that the workers voted it out and elected the current government.
“We believed that the new government, upon assumption of office, would wipe our tears and offset the backlog of arrears because the current administration is getting higher allocations than its predecessor.”
He continued: “Nothing! Up till now, it has been nothing from the government. Yet, the people are groaning under heavy hardship.”
The chairman narrated the efforts the workers have put in to get their entitlement from the government including visits to the finance commissionsr, and accountant general’s office all to no avail.
‘Every day, they visit the commissioner for finance office and Accountant General’s office, but all to no avail. They will ask them to report to the Accounts Department, the Payroll (Unit), and all that, but nothing has come out of the whole movement.
“If care is not taken, the issue will linger for one year, because the names of the affected people are not even in the state government payment system. After all, they don’t have verification codes.
“Mind you, those that are even verified are still being owed. Some are owed three months; some are four months. That is why we are asking: what is the problem? Why are the verified people not being paid for three to four months? So they (the government) know what they are doing.”
Nigeria Labour Congress HQ
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