The Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi, has on Friday declared that the state can not afford to increase salaries of local government workers in the state.
The state governor who further threatened to sack any worker or group of civil servants who indulge in politics ahead of the 2019 elections noted that the state can also not afford to pay the 13th moth salary to workers.
Umahi who spoke at a meeting with members of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ebonyi state chapter stated: “We are doing everything to protect the local government but unfortunately the present chairmen said they cannot afford to pay the 5 percent salary increase and I don’t have the powers to actually increase LG workers salaries.
“If the situation improves, I will increase the salary again. Workers should be happy that we are paying salaries on 15th of every month and it is never done anywhere in the country.
“No one else would do that for you. We can give bonus to everybody but since the workers are not appreciative of this fact, it seems we will stop the payment of the 13th month.
“Tell workers that what I promise to pay is promotion allowance and not leave allowance. No body discussed leave allowance with workers.”