Samuel Ortom, the Governor of Benue State, has been praised for his timely resolution of issues concerning salaries and pension areas to civil servants.
Ortom, who featured on TVC’s public affairs programme “Journalists Hangout” on Sunday, spoke on some national issues and those that concern his state.
According to the Benue Youths Forum, Governor Ortom was emphatic in reminding Nigerians and the people that his state has the highest wage bill in Northern Nigeria and the third highest in the country after Lagos and Rivers states.
Terrence Kuanum, the spokesperson of the Forum, said the group was pleased with the pace-setting initiatives of the Governor Ortom-led administration towards solving issues concerning workers’ welfare, particularly payment of pensions and salaries.
“The Ortom administration recently took a bold step when it got the approval of the Benue State House of Assembly to access a N41 billion facility to clear the backlog of salaries and pensions,” Kuanum said.
“We are shocked and saddened that enemies of the people, the leadership of All Progressives Congress, APC in Benue State, wrote a petition to the presidency to stop the State Government from obtaining the said loan. We strongly condemn the conduct of such elements and caution them to immediately desist from their anti-workers action.”
“We commend the Governor for his transparency in deploying funds accruing to the state from the Federation Account and the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR and other sources by involving critical stakeholders like the labour unions.”
“We also commend Governor Ortom for the prompt payment of workers’ salaries since 2018 and his frantic efforts to offset the outstanding arrears of salaries, some of which he inherited.”