Ondo state government has clarified that workers in the state are not owed six months salary arrears.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Ebenezer Adeniyan, in Akure, denied the claim by an aide in the office of the Vice President, Tope Fasua, that the state government is owing its workforce six months salary arrears.
Though Mr. Fasua has since acknowledged his error and apologised, it is necessary to provide this clarification for members of the public who may have been misled by those false claims.
Adeniyan stated, “It is unfortunate that a Presidential aide whose duties centre on economic affairs would go on national TV to reel out unverified information.”
“What is more disturbing is that Mr. Fasua, who is from Ondo State, could not reach out to any official of the State Government to get the facts and figures he needed for such interview.”
Vanguard reported that, the public needs to be made aware of this clarification in order to protect those who were misled by Mr. Fasua’s false claims.
“The government of Ondo State is not owing any salary arrears to workers. The January 2024 salary was paid to workers, on time.
In addition to paying workers’ salaries as of right now, the Ondo State Government has been providing wage awards of N30,000 per month to all worker categories and N10,000 to retirees as part of its efforts to lessen the impact of the elimination of fuel subsidies.
“The bogus assertion was the state of affairs when Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu’s administration took over in 2017, covering seven months’ worth of unpaid salary arrears. For the seven months, that administration covered six of them.
“Governor Lucky Orimisan Ayedatiwa paid the outstanding one month within his first month of office (January 2017).”
In addition, the Governor settled N1.2 billion in arrears related to retiree gratuities.