The Governor-Elect of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello has denied reports that he was owing state workers.
In an interview, he described the claims as“lies.”
The governor who revealed this while featuring on Channels Television on Tuesday said his government, on assumption of office, inherited a salary backlog in the state from the previous government.
According to him, the issue of owing salaries started from Audu to his immediate predecessor. He further claimed that Kogi State was not owing any dime at the state level at the moment.
He said: “All these reports of me owing salaries are lies. Past governors of Kogi State owed salaries starting from Audu to my immediate predecessor. Kogi state is not owning any dime at the state level, what is left is the ten percent from the previous government.
“As for El-Rufai kneeling, he was begging that Kogi people should forgive Bello for ensuring security and ensuring the state was peaceful and not because he could not pay salaries.”
On the claim of people being killed during the election, Bello said: “After I was declared winner, a PDP thug stabbed somebody and ran into the house of their woman leader but he was caught and dealt with.
“My deputy governor-elect’s wife was shot at but thank God she didn’t die, the police are looking into it and would bring the culprits to book.”