Ekiti State Government on Monday announced the approval for payment N140m severance package due to former dead and living elected-public-office holders at the local government level.

The Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, in a statement, said the beneficiaries of the severance include those elected into office in 1999, 2006 and 2008‎.

They included former chairmen of local governments, council secretaries, councillors as well council advisers.

He said the state governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, gave the order for the immediate payment of the severance package to the affected officers during a meeting he held with them on Monday.

Adelusi quoted the governor as directing that families of those already dead must also be paid the entitlements of their deceased ones.

He also warned local government officials who would effect the payment not to play politics with the exercise, saying anyone caught would face the consequences.

He said, “The governor felt that despite the economic challenges we are facing as a state, we feel it is our duty to honour those who had served our state in the past.

“They had contributed their own quota to the development of our state; therefore, families of those that are already dead should be paid too.

“The ‎exercise has nothing to do with politics and must be fairly shared.

“We already made some payments some months ago and we are again doing this now.

“If this had been done in the past, the backlog would not have been a burden on us now, if not for the financial challenges we are facing, we would have paid everything at a goal.”

The governor admonished leaders of the state to let their actions be in the best interest of the state.

The statement said Fayose urged the people of the state to expect the best from his administration, economic recession notwithstanding in the New Year.