I Can’t Sell Myself To Pay Salaries, Fayose Tells Striking Ekiti Workers

Ayo FayoseAs civil servants in Ekiti State began an indefinite strike on Thursday, Governor Ayo Fayose has said he cannot sell himself to raise money to pay the workers.
The state councils of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiation Council (JNC) issued a ‘stay at home’ order to workers over government’s inability to pay five months salary arrears and for failing to refund deductions made from their December 2015 salaries.
The strike grounded the state capital as government offices and public schools remained shut.
Gov. Fayose insisted that as long there was no money to pay salaries, he would have to wait for the workers to return from their strike.
The governor, while responding to the strike action, pointed out that Ekiti got N751million allocation from the federation account.
“I know workers have not been coming to work, but I don’t have the moral right to stop them . But I can only deploy what I receive from the federation account”, Mr. Fayose said.
“If workers want to go on strike, I sympathize with them but we will be here waiting till when they come back. I can’t sell myself to pay workers. Even the government house where I live does not have diesel to power generator at times.
“I want the workers and members of the public to show understanding. This is not about Ekiti, it is an issue that affects all of us”.