•Chief Olabode George
Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has expressed concerns over the Supreme Court judgement which ordered the stoppage of fund disbursement to local government councils in Rivers State, saying that it was difficult to understand why workers should be made to suffer by not being paid their monthly wages in the midst of the hardship currently ravaging the country.
George said this while speaking with our correspondent on the telephone today, pointing out that it was quite right for the Apex Court to order that Governor Similaya Fubara should conduct a fresh election, but inhuman to order that the federal government should not release funds to local governments in the state, reports Nigerian Tribune.
The party chieftain argued that council workers in the state should not be denied their salary, saying that denying them their entitlement as poor people under the current poor economic situation would make their survival difficult.
“I am so pained by the judgement. The court could say the governor can cancel the local government poll and conduct a fresh one, but to order that the Federal Government should not release funds to local governments is difficult to understand for workers in the councils not to be paid their salaries.
“This is because these are poor people, they are going to get their salaries, they are going to be paid. So when you as a judge are saying that they should not pay salaries to the workers, how do you expect them to survive in this dire economic situation in the country? If the court had said the election should be cancelled and a fresh one held, that’s fine, what concerns those working there?
“It is the responsibility of the state governor to fix and conduct the election he wants for the people of the state, but to ask that they should not pay the salary of workers is absolutely inhuman. At this my age, I cannot condone such a thing happening in this country,” he said.
He, however, urged caution, just as he quickly recalled the political crisis that rocked the then old Western Region, saying that “the justices that were giving the judgement must realise that the centrepiece of the economic import for Nigeria is Rivers State.
“If the workers were not paid their salaries, what did they want them to feed on and already people are shouting about hardship in the land? And there is no appeasement from the government, instead of putting smiles on their faces, you are now slapping them. That’s what it means.
“We should stop the wind of madness blowing across this country, we’ve had it before. Mr President should just wake up and make sure that they do not give opportunity to public disorder. We have not resolved the Edo State issue,” he said.
