Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State is treating workers of the state like slaves, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Usman Okai has alleged.
A statement by Okai on Tuesday further alleged that local government workers, secondary school teachers, and other workers in the employ of the state government are paid stipends by the state and local governments without any explanation.
The PDP chieftain also lamented that officers on salary Grade Level 13 in the state are paid between N26, 000 and N30, 000 per month and that many categories of workers are still owed salaries and other
According to Okai, since Bello declared his ambition to run for the presidency in 2023, he has permanently relocated to Abuja and running the affairs of the state from there.
He said top state government officials have to practically beg to get some stipends to run the affairs of their offices.
Okai stated that “there is nothing like governmenance in Kogi State; and unfortunately every body is living under fear, hence the majority of people and organised labour unions have decided to remain mute for fear of the unknown”. Speaking further, he noted that the state is in a bad shape and that nothing works except sycophancy.
“Even the state House of Assembly members that are supposed to represent the third arm of the government in the state are not functioning as the governor has blantantly refused to provide members with official vehicles. The so-called ‘elected’ local government chairmen are being compelled to sign cheques for projects that are not in existence; all in an effort to cover up funds being wasted on daily basis.
“So, Governor Yahaya Bello should stop treating Kogi workers like slaves. He should know that the state runs a full-fledged monolithic economy; resting primarily on civil service architecture for survival and whatever affects that arm of government will permeate to all sectors. This is the major reason Kogi people are currently groaning with hardship under the reign of terror as typified by Governor Yahaya Bello.
“I want to plead with Nigerians to ignore Bello’s ranting and perceive him as being grossly infantile and callous to be a governor in an ideal society, except in a degenerated society like Nigeria,” he said.
