The former Chairman of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Aliyu Issa Ore has berated a former Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Mr Wahab Oba over the claim that the state government is yet to accommodate local government workers in the N30,000 minimum wage cycle. Oba was CPS to former Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed.
Ore noted that Oba clearly misrepresented him in his article titled “2023: Letter to Kwara Workers” in a desperate bid to drag him into collision course with the state government.
In a statement issued in Ilorin titled “Stop twisting facts”, the former NLC Chairman recalled that at the 13th Quadrennial Delegates’ Conference of the state NLC, he reminded the state government of the outstanding demands of the organised labour, which contradicted the new dimension it took with the article credited to erstwhile CPS.
Ore explained that Oba, who is now a media aide to the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Alhaji Shuaib Yaman Abdullahi, should desist from using the labour union to score cheap political points, adding that the state government had implemented N30,000 minimum wage at the local government level.
He also clarified that there was no time he accused the state government of stopping local government staff from rising to the position of Permanent Secretary in the state service.
The former state NLC Chairman added that civil servants in the state and local government areas currently enjoy N30,000 minimum wage with consequential adjustment component as against the allegation of the former governor’s spokesman that the state government has not implemented the wage.
He urged the people of the state to be wary of the plot to make political fortune of the outstanding issues of state workers, which had since gotten the attention of the state government.
Ore said: “It has come to my notice that an article written by Mr Wahab Oba, a former Chief Press Secretary to ex-Governor of Kwara State that the state government is yet to accommodate local government workers in the N30,000 minimum wage implementation cycle.
“The same article claimed and twisted my speech at the just concluded 13th Quadrennial Delegates’ Conference of the state council of NLC that I said the state government did not consider local government staff to rise to the position of Permanent Secretary.
“I have to make it clear and unambiguous that N30,000 minimum wage had already been Implemented for workers at the local government level. The call for appointment of permanent secretary among local government staff should not be misconstrued as if the state government barred staff at the third tier from rising to the pinnacle of their careers. The issue is about lack of consideration.
“It has to be said from the onset that the organized labour cannot be used as a tool to score cheap political points. It is advisable to seek another platform to achieve this calculated attempt and plot to drag me into a collision course with the state government. Our people should take note of this development and be wary of this needless name dropping”.
