The Nigerian government has issued a directive for the immediate payment of workers’ salaries for the month of February.
Addressing journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday in Abuja, Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, said the move is to ensure that those who wish to travel for the presidential and National Assembly elections rescheduled for Saturday, February 23, 2019, are financially capable of doing so.
According to Mohammed, the salary payment had commenced since Tuesday and is to “ease the burden off civil servants planning to travel for the elections”.
He also noted that the government was working with the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) on reducing the price of petrol from N145 to N140 from February 21 to February 25, 2019.
The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has also agreed to give discount to persons travelling for the elections.
Furthermore, he said Aero Contractors had agreed to give 50 per cent discount to travellers, while Arik Air has also reduced prices of tickets to N16,000 to all destinations in the country between February 18 and March 11, 2019.
