My boss right to build mansion while workers are owed salaries — Gov. Bello’s aide

Agency ReporterDecember 9, 2017

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The Director General on Media and Publicity to the Kogi State Governor, Kingsley Fanwo has reacted to reports condemning his boss for owning a multi-million naira house in his native Okene town.

Mr. Fanwo referred the agitators against the Governor as , “a confused community of crumbling critics”.

Addressing journalists in Kaduna, Mr. Fanwo also said Governor Bello did not violate any known law for having a house in his hometown.

Mr. Bello was criticised for building the mansion and organising a house warming event despite being unable to pay civil servants backlog of salary arrears.

Mr. Fanwo on Saturday said “ I didn’t say anything because they are a confused community of crumbling critics who have lost focus and direction.

“They know the Governor was a successful businessman before his foray into politics. There is no correlation between the salary payment situation in the state and the Governor’s recently completed house at Okene.

“We have spoken severally about the salary situation in the state. We have paid genuine workers up to July 2017 and we are working on the arrears. It is also true that those who were recently pardoned and returned to the payrolls are being owed more number of months.

“We will pay what our Paris Club refund and allocations can pay to make the Yuletide an enjoyable one for our civil servants. They deserve their pay after all their contributions to the development of the state,” he said.

Mr. Fanwo said the Kogi State government will continue to strengthen its relationship with the organised labour, insisting that comparison of the state with oil producing and highly viable states was unfair.

“Anambra State was governed by a forward-thinking Governor who left a fortune for the incumbent. The present administration in Kogi inherited debts and unproductive loans. The Governor is working hard to build institutions that can sustain the gains of his reforms in the civil service,” he said.

Photos of Gov. Yahaya Bello mansion