Fayemi is no longer paying us – Ekiti civil servants cry out
It’s been more than two months since the election in Ekiti state, and some civil servants claim that since the elections, they have been going without pay.
This week, health workers at the Ekiti State Teaching Hospital threatened to strike because they hadn’t been paid for July and August. Local government workers also struck for two weeks last month, but have since resumed work.
Anike, a worker in one of the local government secretariats and said she’s not been paid for two months. “They’ve not paid us since June. The government never did this before the election.
“They used to pay salaries every month end without fail. But since the election, they’ve changed. The government has lost motivation
“We heard rumours that Fayemi has said we should wait till October when the person we voted for will be in charge,” she concluded.
Adebola, a teacher at a public secondary school in Ife-Ekiti, said she just got paid for July only week ago.
“I was paid last week. What we heard is that the government has a lot of debt to pay and Fayemi has said he cannot borrow any more money to pay salaries. So we should wait till the government gets the next federal allocation.”
Banke works at one of the government ministries. She says, “I’ve not been paid, but some people were paid in our ministry last week. That means they’ve begun to pay our salaries and those of us who haven’t been paid will be paid soon.”
Speaking with YNaija, the Ekiti Commissioner for Information, Tayo Ekundayo refuted the stories. “We’re not owing anyone for June or July. We only have August salaries to pay up, and we are working on it. August just ended a few days ago. So it’s not like we’ve taken a long time. Since we took charge four years ago, we’ve been paying salaries very promptly. In some other states, the government perpetually owes its workers months of salary. But we’ve never been like that.”
In Ekiti, the government is the largest employer of labour and most workers in the state work in the civil service. Reports suggest that civil servants were disaffected by certain Fayemi policies concerning them prior to the election and that this caused them to vote for his opponent, Ayo Fayose. The governor-elect will assume office on October 16.
