Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has lauded himself for ensuring that workers in the State does not experience a bleak Yuletide.

Akeredolu who assured the workers in his New Year message of commitment to their welfare, stated that he will not relent towards ensuring that the backlog of salaries are cleared.

Civil servants in the State who were been owed salaries had been receiving percentage salaries since early 2021.

With August salary paid on December 30, 2021, Akeredolu in a statement issued by his Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Donald Ojogo, stated that with the payment, the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, in the State has been able to beat the record of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2016.

According to Ojogo, the immediate-past administration under PDP in the State abandoned the workforce “in the face of excruciating economic hardship, in preference for hasty personal exit plans by principal actors in that Government.”

In the statement, Ojogo added that the balance of 35 percent of June salary, as well as 100 percent for July were at once.

While adding that the workers received 100 percent of August salary, he maintained that the corresponding payments of leave bonuses has also been paid in three tranches.

“More than ever, we were determined to confine to their (PDP) time, the unenviable record of 2016 when workers in the State had the most horrendous season since the creation of the State.

“Workers spent their Yuletide season in hunger and pains. Some died along the line,” he said.