Workers in Ekiti state are presently reeling from the shock of the state government’s withdrawal of their two months’ salaries on Thursday- which had been initially paid into their bank accounts.
The workers in the state, had last week, gotten bank alerts that their salaries for November and December 2015 had been paid.
But the funds would only stay in their accounts for a few days, as on Thursday, they were withdrawn without being notified by the bank nor the government.
Although many workers had gone to their banks to withdraw the money before the mass withdrawals, but some weren’t that lucky and fast.
Punch Newspapers quotes a civil servant in the state, to have said: “I had gone to the bank on Friday to withdraw money from the Automated Teller Machine but was disappointed when there was no money in my account. On enquiry, I was told that the government had instructed banks to recall payment.”
The state government has however, blamed the funds withdrawal on the service providers.
The state’s Commissioner for Information, Lanre Ogunsuyi, said the government never meant to put the workers through embarrassment. “The error is from the service provider and it has been rectified,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Idowu Adelusi, rather than address the issue, blamed former governor Kayode Fayemi for the inability to pay the state’s workers.
“Is it not the mess left behind by the Fayemi’s administration that is causing problem for Fayose’s government? Nine hundred and fifty million naira is deducted monthly by those who Fayemi administration took loan from. If N950m is added to N1.3bn that came last month, it will go a long way for Fayose administration to meet financial obligations,”
Reacting to the debacle, the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti said this is the second time Fayose would be pulling such a stunt of reversing workers’ salary after being initially paid.
According to the state Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun: “He did it to primary school teachers last year when he learnt that they were to embark on a strike. That is what he did last week after learning of the strike plan by teachers after they refused to help him in a solidarity rally to save him from Ekitigate probe.”
“The governor that said the state was broke suddenly paid two months’ salaries after learning that the teachers were bent on embarking on a protest over his failure to pay their salary arrears, even though he quickly reversed a month salary from their accounts after workers were celebrating payment of two months arrears.”
