The immediate House of Representatives candidate for Dekina/Bassa federal constituency in the last general election,Comrade Usman Okai Austin has urged Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Usman Ododo, not to consider paying workers in the state, especially those of local government areas and pensioners, only a percentage of their salaries.
Yesterday, the State Commissioner for Finance, Budget, and Economic Planning, Honourable Asiwaju Idris Asiru, stated that the 21 local government areas of Kogi State received a net statutory allocation of N2,335,532,610.36 in February.
According to him, the VAT and exchange gain difference for the local government areas were N2,834,000,000 and N1,393,767,206.82, respectively.
Additionally, there was a refund on electronic money transfer amounting to N126,404,933.74.
Therefore, the local government areas’ gross statutory revenue for February was N6,689,704,750.92.
Reacting to the development, Okai, in a statement shared with journalists, said huge amounts of money are coming to the State as a result of 13 percent oil derivation, which is in Ibaji, and removal of fuel subsidy, and the civil servants in the State have no reason to go to bed with empty stomachs.
Okai also called on the Governor to pay promotion arrears and workers according to their level and grades, not shortchanging them.
He explained that the excess allocation is to ensure more money in the state to cushion the endemic hunger and poverty as a result of poor government policy, insisting that the money must not be diverted or stolen as usual.
He also advised the government to embark on capital projects to ensure more money in circulation instead of considering this huge allocation as Christmas gifts where the governor and his predecessor will sit down in the government house and share it among themselves or use it to fund his ongoing tribunal case.
“It’s obvious since he, Usman Ododo, was inaugurated, he was only seen signing agreements with his tailor in Abuja.
“The so-called palliative rice he said to have been sent to the state was stolen by the party’s leadership; in reality, Rice palliatives are not appreciation packages for the party’s Members.
“The good of Kogi State people did not see the impact; rather, it was diverted and resold to business people, and those who shared some percent of it only gave one bag to traditional rulers and some portion to their party supporters, instead of citizens.
“The increased allocation to the state should ordinarily address excessive hunger, but the lack of government concern for the citizens will render this allocation not useful. Okai asks Ododo to be different from Yahaya Bello.
“Since the removal of subsidy, more money has been coming to the state, but Yahaya Bello can’t give an account for it, and with him around, Ododo only God knows if he will make any difference.”
