Ogun will not slash salaries, reverse minimum wage, says Gov Abiodun

The Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, on Thursday guaranteed that he would neither slash the salaries of workers nor reverse the lately signed minimum wage in the state regardless of the tough economic situation in the nation.

Abiodun gave the guarantee in Abeokuta during the breaking of the fast (Iftar) with the leaders of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abeokuta.

The Governor disclosed that his government would continue to be creative in its effort to make the state economically sustainable and financially robust to be able to accomplish its duties to the people.

He said, “I was watching on television where I saw one of my brother governors say that his state might have to reverse on the minimum wage.

“We are very creative on the issue of financing and I want to assure you that Ogun will not reverse on minimum wage.”

Abiodun further guaranteed that the local government polls slated to hold on July 24 across the state would be free and fair to everyone.

He stated, “The election will not be skewed in favour of the ruling APC.

“We will not share political positions among men and women who are party faithfuls during the elections but promote equal participation.

“We must be consistent and show that we have learnt from other people’s lessons and that is a product of democracy.

“We have done primaries when somebody else did not want primaries and subjected ourselves to the party process and we evolved through that process which was later confirmed by the general elections despite all odds.

“Let us make sure that whatever process we adopt is democratic. We must be seen as true progressive democrats.

“When it comes to a process like this, what we need to do is to encourage our members to come forward and participate.

“We will vote for them, but we are not going to share it and say because they are our members, they should take it on a platter of gold.

“No, that will be undemocratic. We are not going to do that because it will be unfair.”

Talking about security, the Governor declared that his government would soon re-launch the OPMESA, which in accordance with him, has lately been revived after years of desertion by the immediate past government.

Abiodun further stated that any act of insecurity would be seen as disruption against its plan for his administration to develop the economy of the state.

He said, “We are taking the issue of security very seriously and be assured that we are doing everything humanly possible on this because Ogun is the industrial hub of Nigeria.

“Any act of insecurity is sabotage against our plans to make our state very viable economically and we are going to fight it with everything at our disposal.

“OPMESA has gone for so many years because the previous administration did not take it very seriously, so, the federal government withdrew it.

“But I went after that initiative and I got the Chief of Army Staff to finally approve it because, like I said to him, I don’t know about other states, but my state, I cannot afford insecurity.”