Rivers govt denies approving N80,000 minimum wage

Rivers State Government has debunked news that the state government approved N80,000 as the minimum wage.

In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Nelson Chukwudi, the government clarified that the news is “totally false and misleading.”

It said the response aimed to correct any wrong impressions, especially among civil servants in the state.

The Rivers State Government urged the general public and the civil servants to disregard the false claims made by the online media platform.

According to the statement, the Rivers State Government will make its position on the issue known in due course.

The statement read, “The attention of the Rivers State Government has been drawn to claims circulating in an online media that His Excellency, the Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, GSSRS, has proposed to pay a new minimum wage of N80,000 for civil servants in the State and local government areas.

“Ordinarily, we would not have responded to this fake news, but for the wrong impression it would create in the minds of the public, especially civil servants in the State.

“Therefore, it is important to state that the unverified claims being circulated by Newsweekng.com, and titled: ‘Breaking News: Governor Fubara Proposes N80,000 minimum wage’ is totally false and misleading.

“The general public, and particularly civil servants in the State, are advised to discountenance the false claims in the online media platform.

“The Rivers State Government will make its position on the issue known in due course.”
Recall that the Federal Government and the organized labor, comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, reached an agreement on Thursday to set the new national minimum wage at N70,000.

This agreement followed months of disagreement.

While the federal, state, and organized private sectors had proposed N62,000, labour insisted on N250,000.

The previous minimum wage was N30,000.