By Adekola Afolabi

Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has hailed the resilience of workers in the state and saluted their dedication to service.

The Governor in his message to the workers, congratulated them on the occasion of the 2023 Workers’ Day Celebration.

Akeredolu said the dedication of the civil servants have engendered optimum service delivery to the good people of the state.

He thanked the leadership of organised labour in the state for the show of understanding and courage during the challenging times.

“We understand the place of workers and their contributions to the socio-economic and political development of our state. This is part of the many reasons why workers’ welfare has remained top priority of our administration.

“We have also continued to develop and build infrastructure to make life more meaningful and better for our teeming workers and other residents of the state.

“We are glad that our administration surmounted the challenges imposed by dwindling resources which resulted in our inability to pay full salaries as and when due early last year.

“Today, we have paid workers’ salaries up to date. Even the seven months salary arrears owed by the previous administration have almost been virtually cleared by our administration. We intend to sustain the current trend in payment of salaries as and when due as our aim is to finish our tenure without owing salary. We trust in Almighty God to help us achieve this. Indeed, since we assumed office over six years ago, promotion of workers across all cadres have been done regularly with financial benefits.

“We are also bringing new lease of life into the civil service. We recognize the importance of innovation and ideas. Our administration, through the Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit (PPIMU) has commenced innovation challenge for Civil servants to help unlock their potentials and harvest their ideas for optimum service delivery. The second edition of the innovation challenge holds this year.

“We shall leave no stone unturned in our avowed commitment to reposition our civil service. Our efforts to depoliticise the civil service has yielded impressive results. We shall continue to give undivided attention to the issues and welfare of all workers in the state”, the Governor said.

Akeredolu thanked the workers for their support and prayers for his administration, adding that their commitment to work has contributed largely to the success of his administration.

He urged the workers to rededicate themselves to the service of the state and join hands with his administration to deliver on the “REDEEMED” agenda of his second term in office.