State NLC Gives 21-day Ultimatum For Recall Of Sacked Lecturers
From Ochei Matthew, Asaba
The governor of Delta state, Ifeanyi Okowa has said that he has no solution to the over the eight months unpaid salaries of the local government council workers in the state.
Governor Okowa, who stated this on Sunday at the May Day celebration in Asaba, said the fall in oil price caused the salary arrears challenge at the council level.
“I sympathise with local government councils in the state for not being able to pay their workers because of the fall in oil price. There is nothing I can do about it now; I met a situation that was already tough for the state in payment of salaries and I have no solution to it”
The governor noted that the Delta state has the highest wage bill of over N7 billion in Nigeria.
On the sacked Ogwashi-Uku lecturers, the governor said he would direct the commissioner for higher education to look critically into the matter, confessing that he does not have detailed information on the issue.
Earlier, the state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade David Ofoeyeno, in his address, gave Governor Okowa 21 days to recall the sacked lecturers.
According to Ofoeyeno, the two labour leaders of the institution were wilfully dismissed for no justifiable reason.
“This is unacceptable. May I state here without equivocation that if the issue is not resolved within 21 days, the state council of NLC may not be held responsible for any action that would be brought to bear on the institution’s academic activities,” Ofoeyeno stressed.
Comrade Ofoeyeno, who draw the attention of the governor to the non-payment of salaries of the council workers, said “this issue has assumed a worrisome dimension.”
He said that many families were on the verge of collapse as their breadwinners could not live up to their responsibilities, stressing that if nothing is done to ameliorate the situation, it will cause serious havoc in the state.
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