Reprieve came the way of civil servants in Benue State as the Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, fulfilled his promise to commence payment of salary from 25th June 2023.
Workers in the state last received salary in November 2022, while they were also owed arrears of five months in 2017 which the then governor, Samuel Ortom promised to pay but defaulted.
The backlog of salary arrears was one of the factors responsible for the loss of the Ortom-led Peoples Democratic Party in the last general elections.
In his Democracy Day broadcast, Alia had promised to start payment of salary from 25th June.
On Monday, a cross-section of workers expressed joy and commended the governor for honouring his words.
A staff member in the Ministry of Works, Tony Msugh said: “I thank the governor for fulfilling his promise. Do you know that people started receiving alerts since Sunday, which some of us never expected?
“Our prayer is that the state should not have the kind of leader we had in the past eight years”.
The state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Terungwa Igbe also hailed the governor for honouring his words.
“We want to thank His Excellency for keeping his promise,” the labour leader said.
Also, a worker in the Local Government Service Commission, Bernard Achue, commended the governor for honouring his promise to pay.
“At the time he made the promise during his broadcast on 12 June that workers would begin to receive alerts as from 25th June, some of us did not take it seriously, especially when the day fell on Sunday.
“Surprisingly, some workers actually started receiving alerts yesterday (Sunday) but I received mine this (Monday) morning. I thank God for giving us a man of God and I pray he continues like this.
“You may not understand the reason we are so happy. Many people have lost their lives due to lack of money to go to hospital”, Achua said.
