GOV. ORTOM BRIBED ME TO SUSPEND STRIKE IN BENUE - >NLC National President

Ortom bribed me to suspend Labour strike in Benue- NLC President Nigerian Concord National president of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Alhaji Ayuba Wabba, has explained how the governor of Benue state, Mr Samuel Ortom, tried to induce him financially so he could direct that the ongoing industrial action of organized Labour in the state be suspended. Ayuba Wabba who made this known in a brief telephone interview with Nigerian Concord stated that it was shortly after his meeting with the Benue state chapter of the NLC where he said that the strike would commence yesterday that the governor started sending his close associates to him in order to get a soft landing. Speaking further, the NLC president said he had to reject the bribe of N25 million from the governor so he could be forced to pay the suffering civil servants their outstanding salaries. Wabba also denied reports that the NLC was being sponsored to go on the strike by the opposition leaders in the state. He wondered why the governor and his media aides have been blaming their failure to pay workers salaries on the opposition, stressing the the ongoing strike had nothing to do with the Benue PDP. The NLC chief had last week hinted that the union had officially written President Muhammadu Buhari not to release further tranches of the Paris Refunds to Benue state until the governor of the state, Mr.. Samuel Ortom, is made to account for the already diverted previous bailout funds and Paris Refunds. Wabba said this while speaking with journalists at the end of the intervention meeting which the National leadership of the NLC had with the Benue state chapter of the union in Makurdi. The NLC president made it known that the union had informed Mr. President that subsequent release of tranches should be predicated on how accountable the government of Benue is in the three earlier interventions, bailout and the two tranches of the Paris Refund. He pressed further that Governor Ortom has never been transparent in the handling of the federal government special allocations/
intervention accrued to the state. His words: “It is unheard of that in Benue, state civil servants are owed seven months salary, 11 months for local government workers and 13 months pension arrears, it shows the ingenuity of the state government. “I was telling the members today that the situation of Plateau and Benue were similar in 2015 but today due to the ingenuity and the transparent utilization of the Paris club, bailout refunds, Plateau government has liquidated all the salary arrears. “We are here in Benue to strengthen our members and also to urge them to represent effectively the interest of workers because there would be always contestation about how we are able to prioritize our interest. “The situation in Benue is very precarious , dirty and demeaning that is why I have to make this journey to Benue, we had an interface with leaders of the union and thereafter they have to meet on their own to take some far-reaching decision to be communicated to us in few days ahead.”