Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger has solicited the support of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the March 9 governorship and state house of assembly elections.
He made the call during an interactive session with members of the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Minna on Monday.
Bello called on the members of the unions to vote for him based on his record of meeting workers demands that past governments had failed to meet.
“I am here today to appeal for more votes than the ones you gave me in 2015. This is because we have been able to address some of the demands that past administrations could not meet in the past years in spite of our limited resources.
“We are still trying to correct a lot of mistakes from the past and going forward we should be able to have a better system for workers such as building their capacity and continuous training of civil servants,” he said.
The governor pledged to continue with the prompt and consistent payment of salaries of workers if re-elected.
Read Also:
Bello said that government would exploit revenue generating sectors such as tourism, agriculture and solid mineral that have potentials to make the state a self-sustaining one.
The governor, however, called on civil servants to dismiss allegations that he was planning to reduce the number of civil servants from Zone A and Zone B during his second tenure.
He described the allegation as ‘false and calculated attempt by some mischief makers to divert the attention of the people of the state”.
“Those saying I and my wife have acquired some properties meant for the state is not true. The ones they are bringing up now were advertised for sales during the late Abdulkadir Kure’s administration.
“Nobody will run politics and win election and then say he will sack everybody. That is not possible except the person want to die,” he added.
Earlier, Malam Idris Ndako, state Chairman of NLC, pledged that civil servants would vote massively for the governor during the March 9 elections.
He explained that the present administration has prioritised the welfare of civil servants by prompt payment of salaries and approving payment of leave grant for civil servants.
Idris commended the governor for also approving payment of domestic allowance for directors and implementing annual increment.
