Date: 2014-05-07

The PeoplesDemocraticParty (PDP) Kwara state chapter has described the state government’s announcement of N3, 000 salary increment for workers as a booby trap.

The PDP Publicity Secretary, Chief Rex Olawoye, told newsmen on Tuesday that the said salary increment amounted to a deceit on the part of the state government.

Olawoye added that the said N3, 000 increment was a political gimmick to hoodwink patriotic workers to vote All Progressive Congress (APC) government back to power in 2015. He called on the state government to clear the air as to whether the N3, 000 increment was monthly or annually.

Olawoye also wondered why the N3, 000 increment should exclude teachers attached to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and those in the 16 Local Government Councils workers. He urged the state government to ensure that the largesse go round all the workers in the state civil service and not for selected few.

"Why did Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed announce that only officers on levels 7 to 17 in ministries and government agencies will benefit from the increment.

"What is good for the geese is also good for the gander”, adding that since both junior and senior workers patronized the same market, they should all benefit from the increment.

Olawoye said that the increment was not commensurable to the workers’ contributions to the development of the state and national growth.

The publicity secretary, therefore, pleaded with the workers to “tarry and carry” on with their service to their fatherland.

In his reaction, Mr Usman Farouk, the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said the increment was not a booby trap or a bribe to workers to vote for any party in the state.

He said that the increment had nothing to do with politics, adding that it was the result of the dogged agitation by the organised labour for salary increase since 2011.

"We agitated for an increase in salary and where we started from was much higher than N3, 000 announced by the government,” he said.

According to him, the increments affect workers on levels 7 to 17 because they did not enjoy the minimum wage increase enjoyed by levels one to six in 2011.