Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo Friday night approved a new minimum wage of N70,000 for workers in Anambra State.

This was made known when he met with Labour leaders at the Governor?s Lodge, Amawbia where he also approved immediate payment of the new wage.

According to Soludo, the least paid worker in Anambra State is to go home with nothing less than N70,000 or more as could be between N78,000 to N84,000, depending on the outcome of the tabulation by the government team.

Governor Soludo also announced a monthly cash award of N10,000 to all pensioners in the state, until a time when salary of pensioners is reviewed.

According to him, the interim cash award was necessitated on his goodwill andempathy on the state of pensioners who nobody remembers in all the noise about new Minimum.

Organised Labour leaders to the meeting was led by the chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Humphrey Emeka Nwafor and Trade Union Congress (TUC) Chairman, Comrade Chris Ogbonna. The Chairman, Anambra JNC, Comrade Edith Onwuka among others.

Among those onGovernment team were Secretary to the State Government, Head of Service, Auditor General of the State, Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Commissioner for Finance and Chief of Staff among others.

Soludo also assured that his government is committed for a better secured Anambra, and announced that the state in days to come shall take delivery of hundreds of security vehicles for the vigilant groups and other security agencies and that other security measures are being negotiated.

He urged workers to think positively about Contributory Pension Scheme to save themselves of Pension agonies, adding that the earlier the state workers return to the scheme, the better for them.

The Leader of Organised Labour Comrade Nwafor praised Soludo for making the negotiations easier by the approvals and thanked him for being worker friendly, and requested him to always do more for Anambra workers as a father.

He announced that the Governor has donated a land for the construction of the NLC state Secretariat to be known as ?Workers House? the request of which was impossible since 1991 when Anambra State wascreated, describing it as unprecedented. (Saturday Independent)