Cross River State governor, Senator Ben Ayade, his deputy, Professor Ivara Esu and all members of the state executive council have agreed on a cut on their monthly salaries.
The governor is leading by example, offering 80 percent of his salary. His deputy and all Executive Council members, however, agreed to forfeit 20 percent to make provision for the large number of political aides appointed by the governor.
The Commissioner for Information, Mrs Rosemary Archibong, who announced the pay cut by the governor and his aides in Calabar, Tuesday, said that the decision was voluntary and would take effect retroactively from when the aides were appointed.
“What the governor wants is to reach as many people as possible by appointing many people into government and this involves huge financial commitment and so to make sure our brothers and sisters who are part of government go home with something at the end of every month,” Archibong said.
According to her, the Executive Council members were in support of the vision of the governor to impart positively on the people of the state and volunteering part of their monthly emoluments was in support of that vision. Mrs Archibong said that the deductions from each commissioner’s salary would be based on the amount due each one as salary monthly based on calculations by the Revenue Moblisation and Fiscal Commission in Abuja.
