OSOGBO—Civil servants in Osun State trooped out yesterday to protest alleged non-payment of five months salaries by the state government.

The workers, led by the Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, in the state, Mr. Olatunji Akinyemi, marched through the Osogbo/Gbongan Road, chanting anti-government songs.

The workers said apart from the failure of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led administration to pay them the outstanding salaries, the same government had refused to remit pension contributions, deducted from their previous salaries, to various retirement savings accounts.

They claimed that the governor was busy spending the state’s resources on campaigns of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and left workers to suffer untold hardship.

The TUC chairman, who spoke in an interview, said workers who were due for promotion since 2013, had been denied their rights, adding that the government had not shown that the workers meant anything to his administration.

‘Revenue crisis’

Meantime, the state government has said that salary issues cannot be divorced from the revenue crisis hitting Nigeria as a whole. The government also sought the worker’s understanding.

In a statement signed by the media aide to the governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, the governor said in part that while he recognised the right of the workers to seek for the payment of that which is legitimately theirs, we wish to repeat for the upteemth time that the unfortunate owing of salaries running to about three months cannot be divorced from the crushing revenue crisis that has hit Nigeria as a whole.

According to him; ‘’What is required at this stage is for all and sundry to properly understand the genesis of this whole saga which will be helpful rather than being viewed as a deliberate act on the part of the government.’’