Subsidy removal: Ogun to announce palliative packages soon — SSG

Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta

Secretary to the Ogun State Government, Mr Tokunbo Talabi has disclosed that the government would soon announce details of its palliative measures to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal and other economic realities.

Talabi who dropped the hint when he received a delegation of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria in his office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, said that the committee on palliative set up by the government has submitted its report and “in a few days from now, you’re going to be hearing from the government on the details of its palliative arrangement, now that the committee has submitted its reports.”

The State’s Scribe said, “What is left now is for us to begin to put a cost to the palliative arrangements and we are gradually inching towards achieving that.”

He said the Prince Dapo Abiodun-led government has established trust and openness with the workers in the State by being financially transparent, saying though it doesn’t mean the government has the capacity to offset all the outstanding wage bills, it had demonstrated genuine commitment and sincerity to paying the huge backlog of allowances and gratuities it inherited.

Speaking earlier, Chairman, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria Comrade Akeem Balogun affirmed that the present administration is a promise-keeping government, appreciating it for increasing the health workers’ hazard allowance from N5,000 to N20,000.

Also speaking, the immediate past Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress in the State, Comrade Emmanuel Bankole, said he was proud to identify with the labour union for its reliability and credibility.