Obaseki Increased Minimum Wage to N70,000 Because of Upcoming Election – Group

 

Governor Godwin Obaseki has been accused of increasing minimum wage of workers in the state because of the upcoming election.

 

A Benin-based organization, the Edo N’Okpa Movement described it as a Greek gift hurriedly announced to woo voters for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the September 21 governorship election.

 

While advising Edo workers not to sell their votes ahead of the September governorship election, the group urged the youths to be circumspect as politicians are likely going to rely on them to perpetuate acts of violence during the September election.

 

In a statement issued on Wednesday in Benin, the group noted that the N70,000 minimum wage announced by the state government was pure vote buying.

 

The group’s national convener, Emovon Osaretin, accused Governor Obaseki of always similarly bringing out caterpillars and bulldozers for road projects on the eve of election only to remove them after polls.

 

He said the new minimum wage was one of such “caterpillars and bulldozers” tactics which should not be celebrated by the state workers and the people of the state.

 

Osaretin questioned the N70,000 minimum wage “when the Governor Obaseki’s administration has not been able to pay the N40,000 minimum wage effectively with many workers being owed up to six months in arrears.”

“Maybe he is setting booby traps for the next governor since he knows very well that his anointed governorship candidate of the PDP, Asue Ighodalo, cannot win the election in Edo State,” he said.

 

The group also drew the attention of Governor Obaseki to the Benin-Ugo-Abraka Road, leading from Sakponba Road to Abraka, which has been ongoing since 2016.