Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, has said workers in the state have rewarded him with another term after he cleared backlog of seven months’ salary arrears and sustained regular payment of salaries. Lalong said this at a send-off party organised by the state council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), in honour of its immediate past chairman, Mr. Jibrin Banchir, NAN reports.
The governor, who commended the workers for their support especially for his re-election, promised to sustain payment of salaries and initiate more worker-friendly programmes.
“When we cleared salary arrears and sustained payment of salaries, some people were saying that payment of salaries is not an achievement and I kept on asking what about nonpayment of salaries and nobody answered me.
“I was sleeping one day and some people called to ask me to wake and hear what the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, was saying about me on the television.
“When I woke up, he has finished but somebody recorded it and played it for me, Wabba was raining praises on me for constant payment of salaries and pensions.
“And I said, what else do I need? This is 50 per cent of campaign coming from the labour leader.
“During my party’s screening, other governors were sweating but when I got in, the comrade chairman told me that Mr President made it a condition that any governor who will scale through the primaries must be one that is paying salaries.
“And my case was easy, I took a bow and left,’’ he said.
Lalong said that to make working conditions more conducive, his administration is working towards acquiring land in all Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state to build affordable housing for workers.
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