WARRI—GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State,
has said the impact of the renewed destruction of
oil assets in the state producing environment has
gone so bad that the state is now unable to pay
salaries regularly anymore.
has said the impact of the renewed destruction of
oil assets in the state producing environment has
gone so bad that the state is now unable to pay
salaries regularly anymore.
The governor, yesterday at the Government Office
Annex, Warri, where he convened a stakeholders
meeting on, “Creating A Peaceful Atmosphere for
the Development of Delta State and the Niger Delta
Region,” said: “The larger Nigerian government has
been in financial crisis over dwindling oil prices.
Increased production would have helped cushion the
impact but instead we are faced with destruction of
oil assets.
“Dealing with dwindling oil prices and destruction of
oil assets, we are now producing just half of our
quota. And we are all really worried because of the
greater effect is on Delta State. Before now we
receive up to N20 billion monthly, but what we have
now is so low. Last time we got N3.4 billion. Last
month what we received has dropped to N3 billion.
We now get 1/7th of what we use to have.”
The governor said, going by the current financial
position, the state was no longer in a position to
pay salaries regularly just as Internally Generated
Revenue, IGR, has also nosedived.
“We met a wage bill of N7.4 billion. Our workforce
has been unchanged. With biometrics and
rationalization, we trimmed that to about N6.8
billion. With the situation, we have in our hands, we
are not in position to pay workers regularly
anymore.
“If we produce our normal volumes, we won’t have it
this bad. We have had to reduce support to the
councils. And apart from poor income from
Federation Account, IGR has also gone down
because money is not circulating.
“I do know that we were receiving reasonable Pay
As You Earn, PAYE of up to N1.5bn and N1.6bn
monthly. That has gone down. We should realise
there’s a challenge. Political office holders,
traditional rulers should build peace. Delta State has
been on the news for the wrong reasons and that’s
not where we want to be,” Okowa added.
