Governor Dapo Abiodun says his administration spent N82 billion paying retirees’ pensions and gratuities between June 2019 and June 2022.

Mr Abiodun disclosed this during an interactive session with workers at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta.

The governor revealed that out of the N18 billion outstanding global cooperative deductions, his government paid N12 billion and pledged to pay the balance of N6 billion.

Mr Abiodun attributed the inability of his government to pay the deductions and other entitlements to the increase in the state’s wage bill to N700 million due to the implementation of the new minimum wage.

“The state government in the last three and a half years explored various financial options rather than imposing additional taxes on the people. As you all know, our state was the first to implement the N30,000 minimum wage and this increased our monthly wage bill by N700 million,” said the governor.

He added, “This additional wage bill has affected our plan, which was to settle all outstanding commitments with our workforce.”

The governor announced that the process for the 2021 and 2022 promotion exercise would begin very soon, pleading with the workers to be patient with his administration as their welfare remained paramount.

Mr Abiodun said that his administration distributed projects fairly to all parts of the state. He said the ground-breaking ceremony of the Sagamu-Papalanto road would hold next week to open up the state further.

“When we came in about three years and seven months ago, we were clear on what to do, which include to create an enabling environment for private sector participation in the economy of our state, which in turn will create individual prosperity,” stated the governor. “We did not only focus on one area of the state economy, but all areas.”

(NAN)