The Benue State Government has debunked speculations of paying state civil servants ₦40,000 as minimum wage against the ₦70,000 signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.
Social media platforms in the state were rife with speculations that Governor Hyacinth Alia, during a meeting with workers, proposed to pay N40,000 as minimum wage to civil servants.
However, in a statement on Saturday, the Technical Adviser on Media, Publicity and Communication to the Governor, Solomon Iorpev, described the social media speculations as fake news, noting that Alia is on a working visit to China.
Iorpev said Alia’s administration would not renege in its obligations to pay workers and other cadres of staff their due wages and salaries as approved by law.
He said, “The 3 days ago already makes it fake news my dear brother. The governor has been in China since Monday so at what occasion did he approve N40,000 3 days ago?”
Also, the Benue State chapter secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joshua Abimiku, corroborated Iorpev’s claims.
According to Abimiku, four options were presented to the people during the negotiation, but N40,000 was not among the possibilities.
He said all plans had been concluded and that labour was expecting its implementation.
He said, “What was put forward, and then I think, one is N70,000, the other is N75,000 and then N77,000. So, the one we opted for was that of the 75,000.
“Plans and all other arrangements have been concluded but we didn’t know why it was not implemented this month. But we are giving the government the benefit of the doubt. I mean, today is the first of November already. So, this month it will be implemented as well.
“Nobody’s paying less. N40,000 is less than the national minimum wage and I don’t think any governor has even. That was in the past all those things. I saw those things circulating in the past but that information is not correct.
“We had hoped that it would come in that last month, but we don’t know why [the delay]. So, let’s hope that this month it will be implemented.”
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