It is inhuman not to pay workers’ salary, Dankwambo

Gombe State governor, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo has said that payment of workers’ salary should not be counted as an achievement as it is the legitimate right of those who work to receive their wage and as at when due.

The governor added that his administration has never failed to pay workers their salaries, since according to him it is inhuman for any leader to deny citizens their legitimate mean of livelihood after they have discharged their duties.

The Governor stated this through a Sallah message last week by his Senior Special Adviser, Press, Mr. Junaidu Usman Abubakar which was sent to Daily Times.

According to him, Gombe State started paying salaries of workers on Wednesday and the aim was to ensure that workers and their families celebrate Sallah with happiness and ease.

“The Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo is number one in Nigeria when it comes to salary payment as in many other areas.

“The Talban Gombe considers inhuman for anybody to deny workers their legitimate means of livelihood. So, here in Gombe, workers’ salaries come first.

“The Governor approved the release of salaries since Tuesday last week and workers started receiving payment Wednesday before Sallah. For Gombe, we don’t even consider salary payment as a big deal because from beginning, the governor made it clear that nobody that worked should be denied his means of livelihood,” Junaidu stated.

When reminded by Daily Times through telephone interview that two other states, Adamawa and Bauchi equally paid their state workers before Sallah, Junaidu said there is a wide difference between the pre-sallah payment by Gombe State and that of others because while the other states have months of unpaid salaries, Gombe is on a clean slate.

“We in Gombe don’t like comparing ourselves with our sister states. However, since you raised the question I would like to say that Gombe does not owe workers at all, while some other states owe their workers for months.

If you owe workers six months salaries and pay June Salary because of Sallah it may just have cosmetics effect because people will still be grumbling that they are being owed. So it is quite a different scenario with what obtains in Gombe.

“You should also be reminded that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has earlier conferred on Dankwambo the award of the most labour friendly governor because of the priority he attaches to not only workers’ salaries but their welfare in general,” Junaidu stated.