TheCable

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, has told workers in the state that he cannot “sell himself to pay” them, explaining that there had been times when the generators in the government house had to be switched off as a result of lack of funds to purchase diesel.

The government is owing five months salaries, but Fayose has appealed to the workers to exercise patience with his administration.

He said the state only got the sum of N751 million from the federation account in April as against N1.3 billion it got in March.

“I can’t sell myself to pay workers. Even the government house where I live does not have diesel to power generator at times. It is an issue that affects all of us,” he said in a statewide broadcast.

“If workers want to go on strike, I sympathise with them, but we will be here waiting till they come back. I know workers have not been coming to work, but I don’t have the moral right to stop them . But I can only deploy what I receive from the federation account.”

On Tuesday, unions in the state issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the government to pay the December deductions amounting to N512million or face industrial action.

Following the lack of response, the workers embarked on an indefinite strike on Thursday.