Only political civil servants on strike in Kogi ―Bello

GOVERNOR Yahaya Bello of Kogi state has described workers on strike in the state as political civil servants just as he has blamed politicians in Diaspora for wanting to render the state unstable.

Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, he said other civil servants were reporting for duty and doing their work.

He said his administration was up to date in payment of salaries even though he admitted that it was still owing August and September.

Bello 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 and you will recall that I met four months salary backlog. I cleared it and today we are keeping up to date.

“We are owing 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 shall surely apply.”

On the effort to destabilize the state, he assured that Kogi was calm except for the noise in the media made by those he referred to as Diaspora politicians.

According to him, “Politically Kogi state is very stable. It’s just few diaspora politicians that are making noise in the media and I think you can’t stop them from making noise when they want to. But the reality on ground is that Kogi State is very stable.”

The governor however appealed to the people of the state to be patient as he observed that things were generally hard in the country.

Bello added: “The only thing is that the good people of Kogi state should continue to be patient with this government.

“Things are hard generally and we are trying are best and that is why we are transparent in everything that we do.

“I’m 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 newspapers for people to see it.

“All the noise about Kogi is not paying salaries will be in public domain.”

On the security situation in the state, the governor was of the view that the state was secure even though criminal elements were devising new ways to beat security.

Bello said the state was doing everything to move ahead of the criminals, adding: “On the scale of 1 to 10 we are 70 percent. 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, hoodlums will always device 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.”

On his meeting with the president, the governor revealed that he was at the presidential villa to brief Buhari on the activities in the state.

He said the president had encouraged him to continue with “the good work” he was doing.

He explained: “I came to brief Mr. President of development in Kogi State, I need to give him updates on happenings in the state and he is pleased with the briefing that I gave to him. And he encouraged me to keep up the good job that I am doing in Kogi state.”