Darius Dickson Ishaku, the outgoing governor of Taraba State, has been urged to concentrate on doing everything he can for the state by public affairs analyst Kefas Sule.
In the brief time he has left in office, he urged Ishaku to reach out to everyone and avoid getting sidetracked from accomplishing his remaining goals.
Sule responded to a press release made recently by the governor through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Bala Dan Abu, in which Abu claimed that his administration is not owing any group of state employees monthly salaries. Sule made this statement in an open letter to the governor on Tuesday.
The claim, which has continued to stir up controversy in the state, was seen to have forced organized labour, under the leadership of Peter Jediel, the NLC state chairman, to refute the allegations by claiming that “local government workers are owed for six months, primary school teachers are owed for four months, while over 1,000 pensioners are not on the payroll.”.
Sule said
“I suggest that you call a town hall meeting with the local government employees, elementary school teachers, TSU staff, and your appointees so that everyone can come forward with the evidence of payment—or the lack of payment—so that the truth can be ascertained. “.
Sule believed as such
“The statement gives a casual reader the impression that your administration is already at odds with one that has not yet taken flight. Should this turn into a verbal battle, yours would be seen as the aggressor, making a mountain out of a molehill in order to settle a score.
“Repeating the claim that your government is not owed salaries over and over again does not strengthen the case; on the contrary, it undermines the core of the argument. “.
Many things have been blocked from reaching you or misrepresented to you, according to the analyst who also noted that “some of those working with Ishaku have not been telling him “the truth.”. One of them, in my opinion, is the salary issue. “.
Ishaku asserted that his administration in the aforementioned statement, which has continued to cause controversy.
“never played around with the welfare of workers in its eight years of stewardship in the state,” the statement continued, adding that “it had consistently paid their salaries since it took office in 2015, most of the time before the end of every month.”. “.
