The Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, on Monday described the state’s striking workers as political servants.
Bello spoke with State House correspondents after a meeting he held with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The governor said, “Those workers that are on strike are political civil servants; real civil servants are coming to work.
“We are trying our best to keep up with the payment of salaries. There is no denying the fact that the economy is biting hard everywhere. You will recall that I met four months’ salary backlog; I cleared it and today we are keeping up to date.
“We owe August and September as we speak. We are up to date in terms of salaries and those that come to work, we shall pay them and those that don’t come to work, the ‘no work, no pay’ rule shall surely apply.”
Bello said his state was politically stable except for a few “Diaspora politicians,” who he said were making noise in the media.
He said while he could not stop them from making noise whenever they wanted to, the reality was that Kogi State was very stable.
He also said his administration was doing its best in tackling security challenges in the state.
The governor said, “On the scale of one to 10, we are 70 per cent. We are doing very well even though the challenges are still there.
“Security is not what you tackle once and for all, you have to continue to do your best.
“The criminals, kidnappers, armed robbers, and hoodlums will always devise various tactics, they may change styles. We have to change along with them and be ahead of them at any point in time in order to keep Kogi State secure and Kogi is currently secure.”
He urged the people of his state to continue to be patient with his government.
“Things are hard generally and we are trying our best and that is why we are transparent in everything that we do.
“I am sure you are aware of the periodic publishing of our accounts. Very soon, we are going to publish all the salaries that we have paid to workers since inception in the newspapers for people to see them.”