PDP is at liberty to rant all it likes on the burglary. We have made our point, and the source of what documents are stolen could be traced to newspaper publications especially the Sahara Reporters. As regard the council workers' unpaid salary, we say the following:

On August 20, 2012 our party issued a statement backing the NULGE's 14-day ultimatum to KWSG to pay the backlog of salary arrears owed council workers across the state. In the statement we tasked the government to come clean about the state finances which we insisted were unhealthy.

The PDP and the state government, as usual, dismissed our interventions and said we were inciting workers. but of course the government's spokesman gave contradictory reasons on why they were owing council workers. Addressing reporters on August 22, the state finance commissioner, Demola Banu, claimed the delay was due to shortfall in allocations from the Federation Account.  

On August 26, Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed himself said: "There had been drops in the allocation to the states, and delays in allocation meetings and allocation of funds to the local governments. These shortfalls since May, June and July this year have not been helpful."  

When countered with the fact that all the states of the federation are affected by this shortfall and that Kwara alone is owing workers for months, the government made another excuse, back in August, that the salary delay was due to some screenings (biometric) to clean up the finances of the councils and guarantee accountability.

But today Kwara State Government is still owing at least 3 months salary arrears due to the council workers, resulting in a mass protest on October 9 by some council workers from Ilorin South Local Government. Other local councils are equally affected. The government itself has admitted to this but is hiding under biometric screening exercise to justify this misnomer. Even as the governor himself admits (in an October 9 statement titled "Why LGs delayed salaries" and signed by his spokesman Femi Akorede) to the state government being behind the non-payment of salary on account of biometric exercise, his commissioner for information commissioner, Tunji Moronfoye, said on the social media, Twitter, on October 9, that the state government knows nothing about the non-payment of salary. He had said: "The state Govt is clear on the issue! Local Govts should pay!!!!." Meanwhile Akorede had said earlier that: "We are screening workers to sanitize LG finance and ensure they meet obligations including payment of salaries." Who do we believe?  

We condemn this double speak and contradictions from the same government. This points to the fact that the government is only inventing lies upon lies to deceive the people of Kwara State. But more irksome is that while thousands of Kwara workers are owed months of salary arrears, the Governor has embarked on a jamboree trip to London, accompanied by 30 government officials including some council chairmen whose workers are working with empty stomach. This is wicked, inconsiderate and insensitive. We add that these workers have earned their money and must be paid immediately, while process must be in place to ensure prompt payment in the future.

Again we urge the Kwara State to come clean about its handling of the state finances which clearly have gone from bad to worse in the last few months. Also, we urge the security agencies to keep a close watch on Kwara in the light of the many scandals rocking the state, from burglary in the Finance ministry to the CBN blacklist and allegations of using state fund to bail out private business.