Ekiti State All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Governor Ayodele Fayose of persecuting the union leaders in the State for demanding the payment of the workers’ salaries.
The party insisted that persecuting union leaders for demanding for workers’ rights is a needless provocation that can rupture the existing peace in the state.
The party’s Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said in a statement on Sunday that union leaders had a responsibility to the workforce and they had acted constitutionally in defence of workers by requesting for their pay.
He slammed the governor for crediting workers’ accounts with their salaries only to withdraw the money after a heavy media hype.
Accusing Fayose of playing games with the lives of the workers, Olatunbosun said: “The governor that said the state was broke suddenly paid two months salary after learning that the teachers were bent on embarking on protest over failure to pay their salary arrears, even though he quickly reversed a month salary from their accounts after workers were celebrating payment of two months arrears.
“We reliably gathered that the money he used to pay workers last week was part of the cash he could not allegedly ferry to Dubai when President Muhammadu Buhari came visiting.
“This is besides the fact that the teachers’ salary for September, 2014, was captured in the bail-out cash, yet he refused to pay the hapless workers who are barely surviving the harsh economic condition imposed on them by his anti peoples’ policies while his own family lives in opulence abroad.
“As we speak, Fayose is threatening labour leaders for legitimately asking for the rights of workers. While doing this, he has relocated government business to Afao- Ekiti at exorbitant cost just as he did when he was about to be impeached in 2006” .
But Fayose, who described the allegation as senseless , said: “Ekiti workers understand us and we understand them . The workers know that Fayose has never deceived them, the workers have seen the difference between the inept and purposeless Fayemi administration and Fayose administration.
“Since the inception of this administration, the labour has not been kept in the dark in the running of the government. The labour is a member of the appropriation committee that sits every month to share allocations from Abuja. The labour sees everything. This is a privilege labour did not have under Fayemi.
“Is it not the mess left behind by the Fayemi administration that is causing problem to Fayose government? N950million is deducted monthly by those who Fayemi administration took loan from. If N950m is added to N1.3b that came last month, it will go along way for Fayose administration to meet financial obligations”.