Delta State youths under the aegis of Delta Youths Assembly, a socio-political pressure group comprising all the youths in the state, have called on the state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, to urgently pay workers in the state with the N10 billion received as the second tranche of the Paris Club refund.
In a press statement by Ezekiel Enejeta, the National Publicity Secretary of the DYA, the group lamented the inability of the Okowa-led state government to offset over 15 months salary owed local government employees in the state.
Reacting to the sufferings of workers in the state, Comrade Gilor Kelly, the National President of DYA, said in spite of the N21.54 billion Delta State received from as federal allocation in the first quarter of 2017, the state government is still owing workers.
Gillor said: “Delta state in the recently disbursed Paris Club refund received N10 billion, the State also received N14,500,000,000 in 2016 and have so far received a total of N27,606,963,362.46 from the Paris Club refund between 1995 and 2002.
“Also in federal allocations, the Okowa-led administration have received the third largest share behind Rivers and Bayelsa States, with all these funds including internally generated revenue, Delta State is still behind most states with visible deficit in infrastructural development.”
The group therefore enjoined Governor Okowa to use the Paris Club refund to offset salary as workers in the state have lost patience in the midst of hardship and high cost of goods and services in the country.