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Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, on Monday ruled out retrenchment of workers as an option as the state tries to overcome its financial challenges.
The governor’s assurance delighted civil servants, who had gathered for the annual inter-religious service to formally welcome the 2016 working year at the Governor’s Office Car Park in Ibadan.
In attendance, were the Deputy Governor, Chief Moses Alake Adeyemo; the state Chief Judge, Justice Ladipo Abimbola; the governor’s wife, Mrs. Florence Ajimobi; members of the state House of Assembly, the state Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Akin Oke; party members, as well as Christian and Islamic clerics.
Ajimobi however said that he would introduce strict economic policies as the restructuring of ministries, departments and agencies as well as the Board of Internal Revenue to shore up the internally generated revenue.
The governor called for the continued understanding and cooperation of the workers in his quest to reposition the state, stating that government would do everything possible to fish out ghost workers, truants and absentees and deal with them in accordance with the law.
Ajimobi said that workers had enjoyed one of the best welfare packages in the South-West which he said had stood his administration out as worker-friendly.
Such programmes, he said, included payment of salaries on 25th of every month, training and re-training of workers both within and outside the country, payment of 13th month salary for three consecutive years as well as the payment of 2014 and 2015 outstanding leave bonus which, he pointed out, had resumed.