First Lady, Aisha Buhari, on Thursday, November 14, begged the people of Kogi to forgive governor Yahaya Bello over unpaid salaries.
Mrs Buhari explained that Bello was unable to pay salaries because of the verification exercise that was organised for civil servants in the state.
The president’s wife made this known at the All Progressives Congress rally in Lokoja, shortly after Kaduna state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, had knelt down before the crowd, asking them to forgive their governor.
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She said: “Let me refer back to Kaduna State governor’s speech where he had to kneel and say the people should forgive and forget. Also, my husband used to emphasise on salaries.
“It took a while before the Kogi salaries could be settled after a long time of verification. But this time, vote for him for continuity of payment of salary on time.”
Mrs. Buhari subsequently invited the governor to the podium, saying, “I want Yahaya Bello to talk to you about timely payment of salary.”
On his part, governor said: “We have been paying on time. The civil servants can attest to that. Your Excellency, you directed, you supported and we cleared the salary arrears and we shall continue to pay on time.”
Meanwhile, The Herald reported that the opposition party, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) questioned the source of the funds financing the Office of the First Lady, Aisha Buhari.
PDP in a statement released on Thursday accused the President of running an “extremely expensive” administration, asking him to cut down on cost of governance.
The opposition party also stated that there is no rationale behind the Office of the First Lady especially after he promised to scrap it