Kogi, Benue, Others Still Owe Workers Salaries – Survey

A survey by the News Agency of Nigeria

(NAN) in the North Central zone has

revealed that state governments still owe

workers in spite of the bailout funds

provided by the Federal Government.

The survey also found that all debt-ravaged

states that collected the Federal

Government intervention fund as well as the

Paris Club loan refund still owe some

categories of workers salary arrears.

In Benue, for example, NAN learnt that the

state government owes state and local

government workers seven months and 10

months’ salary arrears respectively.

They were said to have received salaries

last in May 2017 and February 2017.

Sources at the state Ministry of Finance

indicated that the state government had

received N12.5 million and N6.8 billion in the

first and second instalments of the Paris

Club refund.

Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue blamed

government’s inability to settle workers’

salaries on huge wage bill, which he said

was “too weighty” for the resources

available to the state.

Ortom said that the wage bill was about N8

billion, adding that a committee had been

set up to determine the veracity of the list

of government workers.

Similarly, in Kogi, where the government was

said to have received more than N6 billion in

the second tranche of the Paris Club refund,

workers are being owed many months in

salary arrears.

Mrs Petra Akinti-Onyegbule, the Chief Press

Secretary to Gov. Yahaya Bello, told NAN

that the government was doing everything

possible to settle salaries owed workers.

NAN learnt that some workers received 60

per cent of their salaries in the last four

months of 2017 (September to December)

while others were being owed between 11

months and 22 months respectively.

In Taraba, NAN survey also showed that

some workers had received their salaries up

to December 2017 while others were still

being owed many months in salary arrears.

Also affected are the state’s pensioners,

whose Chairman, Hassan Abubakar, said that

his members were owed gratuities totalling

N14.9 billion.

“The state government owes its pensioners

N9 billion, while local government pensioners

are owed N5.9 billion in gratuities.”

Conversely, in Plateau, the state Chairman of

the Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr Jibrin

Bancir, confirmed that the state government

was not owing any worker.

In Nasarawa State, Mr Abdullahi Adeka, the

state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour

Congress (NLC), said that civil servants

were being owed only one month salary

arrears.

Adeka told NAN that staff salaries March

2017 was outstanding.

He also explained disclosed that some

workers, who participated in the industrial

action called by the NLC last year, were not

paid for two months as the state government

invoked the “no work, no pay” policy.

(NAN)