Fix ASUU strike, issues affecting labour — Delta Govt tells Festus Keyamo

The Delta State Government has charged the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Barr. Festus Keyamo, to address the ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike immediately instead of playing politics with the lives of Nigerian Students.

This development is unconnected to the recent comment made by Barr. Festus Keyamo, over the lack of infrastructural developments in Delta State.

Speaking on Sunday in Asaba, Delta State Commissioner of Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu cautioned the opposition party not to paint pictures that variant to reality.

He urged the Minister to take a cue from the success of the Delta State Government in ensuring uninterrupted academic sessions in addressing problems of Federal Universities across the country.

According to Aniagwu, “Who is he to say that nothing is working in Delta State. When those in APC speak, they should not involve lies. They should force issues affecting labour and the sad fact that some of our children in Federal and some state Universities are not in school due to the academic strike that has lingered for five months.”

He further lamented the continuous plot by the opposition in the state to launch attacks of calumny on the state government in the guise of protesting pensioners.

He said that the recent staged protest by pensioners who retired under the local government was led by the women leader of APC with the aim to spoil the rising image of Governor Okowa.

Though he noted that the protesters who retired under the local government were not under the pension scheme of the state government, he further mentioned that the state government has frequently assisted the local government to clear its backlog of pensions and salaries.

”When we came in, we gave the Local Government across the state a sum of N 600 million to meet up with salaries. We have also been assisting them to pay pension. When we came in, we were giving N150 million but we upscaled it to N300 million and further increased it to N500 million to meet their needs.

“If we have made such efforts you begin to wonder why this woman and those who are bankrolling her begin slander the image of the state governor” he asserted.  (Daily Independent)